Lunar Impact: Apogee
by Ectodude
Summary: 7 years ago, the Ghostbusters arrived in Tokyo to investigate paranormal disappearances. 7 years ago, the Sailor Scouts were under siege by an old enemy risen from the grave. They joined forces and saved Tokyo. 7 years later, and now New York is set to be the center of a worldwide disaster. They will come together again, but it won't be easy. Sequel to "Dark Side Of The Moon"
1. Family Of Zero

Lunar Impact

Sailor Moon/Extreme Ghostbusters Crossover

By Dan "Ectodude" Shannon

Chapter 1: Family of Zero

Wednesday June 12th, 2002

Ghostbusters HQ

New York City, NY USA

11:22 PM

It was a long day. Dan Shannon – senior field Ghostbuster on staff – quite literally stumbled into the main door from his truck, Extreme Lucky Black – the black supercharged 2000 Chevy S-10 Xtreme made up to be the team's SERVe – Supplemental Ectoplasmic Response Vehicle. Over his shoulder was his experimental flight pack him, Roland Jackson, and original Ghostbuster Egon Spengler created for Dan some time ago. Roughly an hour ago Dan had dropped Eduardo Rivera at his apartment then made his way to the main firehouse. The main team had come and left some time before disposing of the ghost in the containment unit leaving Dan to enter the firehall alone. As she did years before, Janine Melnitz sat at her desk before the Ecto-1and sat patiently for the phone to ring reading a magazine as she did. She took notice of the 27-year-old man as she heard the door open and the man's boots clank on the door's threshold, "Took you long enough. Everyone else is gone for the night."

"You don't say," was all the Chicagoan could say as he lumbered into the garage area, pack strap over shoulder, "I ended up being bitched at by Eddie's brother Carl again. I swear, it's like being back at home." Janine looked over the edge of her magazine and looked at the tired, broken man before her. He walked passed Janine's desk and walked into Peter Venkman's old office. After a moment, she heard a loud, "CLANK" that sounded like the Proton Pack being dropped on the desk in the sectioned off area. The sounds of rustling and swearing was heard behind her filing cabinets as he shook the pack off his shoulders beforehand exacerbated his irritation more vocally told an ever disturbing story, "Dan?"

An irritated, "What?!" ruptured over her filing cabinets as she winced. Janine didn't hate Dan; If anything, she cared about him like the Original Ghostbusters, and even like the new kids. As much as she wanted to react to him like she used to with Peter, or even Ray, she had a soft spot with Dan due to his middle-place stance with the company being a trainee with the originals in the mid-90's, but still leading the kids from Egon's class. She knew he was just annoyed with where he was in life, but she felt he needed an ear to talk to, "...Are you okay?" She looked behind her and saw nothing behind the darkness. She heard plenty, though, including a sigh, "I wish." Dan walked forward and passed the doors leading to Venkman's old office space as he rested his wrists onto the edge of Janine's desk. His hands were folded and his eyes looked to the floor. He continued looking to the floor as he posed a question to the team secretary, "Am I a bad leader?"

Janine dropped her magazine. A look of anger had actually come over her face as she was about to chew him out, but that was when she noticed it – his eyes were red like he had been crying. His voice barely gave the sign he was, but after noticing it, Janine now heard it clearly as he talked, "I've been back here for almost two and a half years and I feel like all I've done was spin my wheels. I work all damn day and then come back here just to sleep three hours just to go back out and do it all over again. Garrett hates me, Kylie thinks I'm an idiot, and Eduardo is just now starting to like me enough NOT to kill me, and only because Egon paired him with me. The only one that likes me is Roland because we're both technical minded. I don't even know why I even came back here."

"Dan," Janine's voice was rather soft, her Brooklyn accent barely coming through as she spoke, "I never have known you to be a bad person. If anything the others have learned a lot since you took over field operations. Egon has nothing but praise to say about you..." Dan looked up with an eyebrow cocked. Janine, took notice, "...We'll, as close to praise I can understand from him." Dan sighed as he lowered his head and pushed off Janine's desk. He paced back and forth between the back of the Ecto-1 and her desk as he gripped the bridge of his nose, clearly having some kind of distress he wanted to talk about, but couldn't find a way to initiate the conversation. The Ghostbusters' secretary would normally be annoyed by what Dan was doing, but it was clear he wasn't doing it of his own volition. She saw he clearly needed a place to start, "What caused you to start thinking you don't belong here?"

Dan stopped pacing, his back turned to Janine. He placed his hands onto his jumpsuited hips, "It was when I was dropping Eddie off at his place..."

One hour ago.

The black pickup pulled in front of Eduardo's apartment to see a spectacle before them in the front of the building. Eduardo's brother Carlos – or "Carl" as he saw fit to call himself instead – a mustached police officer with NYPD – was standing outside of the apartment arguing with a now 15-year-old Kevin, Eduardo's nephew. Eduardo's sister-in-law Beth was standing to the side of the argument as the two of them screamed at each other hoping that one would overtake the other's voice. Both men were beet-red as the two screamed. Dan took the truck out of gear and set the parking brake as Eduardo had a look of distress on his face. His voice mirrored that sentiment, "Oh, man! This is the third time this week!"

Beth had turned around to see Lucky Black behind her. Seeing the Ghostbusters logo on the door, she knew who was in the truck and rushed over to the passenger side. Eduardo stepped out of the truck as she explained in a panic, "You have to do something! They're going to kill each other!" When Eduardo heard that, he quickly slammed the door to the vehicle and ran toward the conflict. Seeing his partner suddenly do that, the blonde-haired and bearded Ghostbuster also stepped out of the truck and came up next Beth, "What the hell's going on?!"

"It's Kevin's grades. He just got his report card for the end of the year and he nearly flunked social studies."

Dan was confused, "Nearly?"

"Carl wanted Kevin to join the NYPD Youth Cadet Camp this summer and he needed to have a grade of C or higher in all classes to get in."

"You mean…?"

"He wants him to join the police force." Dan put his head into his hand, "Oh, Jesus Christ."

Actively getting into the middle of the two Eduardo broke up the screaming match, "Okay, OKAY! Chill out! Both of you!" "Uncle Eduardo, he's trying to get me to be a cop again!" Kevin yelled.

"Maybe with an attitude like that, it's a good thing you failed!" Carl yelled back.

"I failed that class on purpose!" Carl was starting to turn red again as Kevin continued, "Ever since the Trade Center was attacked, you've been trying to get me onto the force. Dad, I'm 15! I don't wanna get killed because a bunch of middle easterners blow up another building!"

Carl blew his top, "Do you have any idea how many favors I put in for you to even be _considered_ for the Youth Camp?!" he physically reached for his son, Eduardo grabbing him and holding him back, Beth gasping as she watched her husband go for her son's throat, "You little..."

"Carlos," Eduardo strained, "You gotta get a grip! The kid doesn't wanna go!" Carl grabbed Eduardo's green polo shirt and threw his younger brother to the ground, "Goddamnit, stop calling me, 'Carlos'! He's not your kid, and he's living under _my_ roof like _someone else_ I know, so where are _you_ to tell me what for?!"

"Hey!" Carl looked up to see the man in the navy blue and gray trimmed Ghostbuster uniform step forward, "Who in the _fuck_ do you think you are, huh? NYPD or not, you have no right to tell others what do the way you are." Dan bent down and helped Eduardo up, "You alright, Eddie?"

"You get in the middle of this, Chicago-boy, and I'm gonna take your ass to the tank at the station!" After getting Eduardo back on his feet, Beth walked up to Kevin and put her hand on his shoulder as Dan continued, "Look here you Larry Csonka-looking motherfucker, this man is your brother. That's your _son_ back there! What in the hell is wrong with you, wanting to attack your son? This is your family!"

"And what would you know about family? Eduardo told me you don't talk with your parents; you barely talk with your brother. You moved all the way out here, and for what? To start your own family?"

"Hey, my team _is_ my family!"

"All the other Ghostbusters don't even like you! Why should I listen to a failure like _you?!"_ That cut Dan, and it cut him deep. The worst part about what was said…

Dan knew it was true.

Beth called out, "Carl, that's enough! Haven't you burned enough bridges tonight?" Kevin reached up to the hand at his shoulder to get his mom's attention, "Mom, I'm gonna crash at Uncle Eduardo's if it's okay with him."

Eduardo had a scowl on his face directed at his brother. Without looking at his nephew he replied, "You bet it's alright with me. Beth?"

"I think I'm going to join you, Kevin. I think your father needs some time to think of what he did alone. Go on inside, I'll get you a change of clothes," she let go of the teenager as Eduardo threw his keys in his direction. Kevin ran toward Eduardo's apartment and let himself in as Beth started bickering at Carl, shoving him into their side of the building leaving Eduardo alone with Dan in the street. Dan leaned against the front bumper of the pickup, his head in his hands as he sat in silence. Eduardo slumped down next to his partner and started, "Look, I'm sorry about that. I've never known Carl to be so angry. It's just been hard with Kev becoming a teenager and Carl with his cop mindset..."

"Is it true?" Dan cut the Latino man off. There was a silence as Eduardo tried to figure out what Dan meant. Before he could even ask, Dan asked more completely as he took his head out of his hands, "Is it true that everyone else hates me like I think they do?" He looked directly over at Eduardo. He had a look of confusion on his face as if he wasn't sure how to answer, "Well… B-uh..." Dan shook his head and stood up, making his way to his truck's driver side door. Eduardo stood up shortly after as he watched the man get into his truck to start it up. The supercharger whined as the truck was put into gear and the tires did a light short squeal as the truck took off into the darkness.

"A lot of things came to mind from Carl's words," Dan was now sitting in a chair in front of Janine's desk as he told her what happened, "Me and my folks haven't talked in several years. I'm angry at both of my parents for different reasons, but nevertheless I just can't stand them, or what they do. Most of my coworkers hate me, I don't have any friends outside of this place, and I just found out about 6 months ago, I not only have a sister-in-law, but that I was gonna be an uncle myself," Dan reached into his flight suit pocket and took out a couple of Polaroids, handing them to Janine to look at. There was a little baby girl being held in a set of arms of a man whose facial features looked similar to Dan's. It was likely his brother. She couldn't help but say, "Oh, she's adorable!"

"Yep, that's little Riley. I got those in the mail 3 weeks ago," he began reaching for the photos back from her when she said, "Well, then you should be happy." Dan stopped short of grabbing the pictures. He slowly pulled his hand back as he leaned back into his chair, his shoulder's slumping as he did. Janine looked up, "Wait, is that's what's bothering you? You don't have a family of your own?"

"Janine, I spent my whole life working my ass off. Before I came here originally, I was working at an appliance repair shop in Burr Ridge, Illinois. Jamie kept bitching at me that I need to go where the money was, but Chicago was a programmer's market at the time. It was better for my brother, Mr. Computer Programmer then me, a guy who graduated top of his class at DeVry Technical. Learned too damn late what Clinton did for the manufacturing and Engineering industries, so I figured I'd come to New York. I saved every penny to leave for four months and get a job here, she goes and double deals behind my back with some d-bag with money and a Mustang."

Janine nodded her head as she laid Dan's pictures down, "I remember that. She got you evicted from your apartment just to twist the knife. That was right before you guys left for Japan for that one week." Dan nodded his head back, "When I was in Japan, I met someone there. She wasn't just some rebound, either," Dan reached back into his suit pocket and pulled out a regular set of photos. He handed them to her to look, "Her name's Lita Kino. She sent these to me when we were corresponding a few years ago."

Janine looked at the photos. She saw a fairly tall Japanese girl with brown hair in a ponytail and green eyes wearing a pastel yellow sweater and rose earrings, "Wow, she looks awfully young."

"Yeah, she was still in high school when I met her. Remember, I was 20 when I was there, so the gap wasn't that steep. She's gotta be at least 22 by now. Anyway, we lost contact shortly before I moved back here. I was trying to contact her friends to find out why her letters were coming back to me undelivered, but I couldn't find them either. Not too long after, SBC bought out Ameritech and put everyone on notice that cutbacks were happening."

"SBC?" Janine asked in amazement, "Wait, you were a telephone worker?"

"Yeah, I went from being Egon and Ray's guinea pig to repairing phone service. I was actually the go-to guy for repairing DSL modems. But, yeah, they laid me off. I sat there destroyed in my house wondering what I was gonna do. The Union was no help, so I ended up staring at the TV for a month trying to figure out what to do when I saw a news report on there being a new team of Ghostbusters. I gave Egon a call, and here I am. After all this time..." Dan sighed heavily as he reached back for all his pictures, "I haven't seen any progress in my life. If anything," He looked at his picture of his niece, then looked at the picture of Lita, "I feel like I wasted my life."


	2. Crossed Circuits

Chapter 2: Crossed Circuits

Thursday June 13th, 2002

9:30 AM

It was the next morning. Dr. Egon Spengler was in his lab on the second floor of the firehouse looking into a microscope, same as usual. Most of the other Ghostbusters were off at college doing what was left of their schoolwork to finish off the year, sans Dan who was in the Containment area checking the Containment Unit over on the daily checklist. Egon was becoming more stiff as the days went on, not always able to do field work let alone running up and down stairs the way he used to. Granted, since Garrett was recruited as a Ghostbuster the firehouse's elevator became more frequently used instead of just collecting dust and not running like when they first bought the place. Still, Egon had just enough pride – despite being as bland as burnt toast – to not use said elevator and just grin and bear it. Dan did most of the work anyway from his training in the old days, so it saved him the joint popping.

Janine had come into the lab with a cup of coffee for Egon. She stopped and saw the man at work as she had for several years, "Egon? I brought you some coffee." The blonde scientist looked from his microscope set to her. "Thank you Janine," he took the cup and set it down next to the device as he explained, "I've been studying this sample Roland and Kylie brought back from the Museum of Natural History. The curator of the museum Dr. Rutherfold heard strange happenings in a new exhibit on loan from the National Nordic Museum in Seattle, Washington. He found these samples on the floor. It looks to be dead skin, but the cells are still active. There's very small amounts of PKE coming off the sample, but not much else."

"Oh, Egon," Janine said with a sweet voice, "I could hear you go on saying scientific stuff for days..."

"Well..." Egon started, a light amount of excitement reaching his brow.

"...But that has to wait." Egon's face turned into a scowl. "Egon, I need your help with something. It has to do with Dan." "Dan?" The scientist was slightly confused, "A relative of his didn't pass away, did they?" Janine grunted at the man's denseness, "No! I want to know: Does the name Lita Kino mean something to you?"

Both of Egon's eyebrows shot up from behind his glasses, "Lita?"

6:56 PM

By late afternoon the firehouse was still relatively empty. Activity was low in the city which allowed the others to go off somewhere else and do other things with the exception of Garrett. He had a basketball team practice, but it ended up canceled when the school gym was closed for some unexplained reason. When he and his team saw a glimpse, it looked like a large hole was put into the one set of bleachers, but they didn't see much else. He rolled around the garage area in his wheelchair and didn't see anyone. Coming to Janine's desk he saw a note explaining Janine and Slimer had run to take care of errands and that they'd be back shortly, "Hey, do I have the place all to myself or somethin'? Where is everyone?"

Dan was sitting in the old bunk room. In his hand was a printout for the Cherry Hill Temple in Tokyo from off the internet. He sat on his bed with the phone at his side wondering if he should call. It was about 7 in the evening in New York, so someone should be awake being it's 8 AM there. His heart was racing pretty hard. He picked up the phone and started to dial the number. The phone was ringing…

_On the other side of the world…_

Amidst a long path of Cherry Blossom trees sat a small temple. The summer months were among the Japanese people as families gathered at the temple to enjoy the scenery and take in the beauty of the temple in the early morning hours. Inside a shorter bald old man was bossing around a much larger man with long brown hair that covered most of his face who was carrying water pails on a carrying pole. The taller man was splashing water all over the floor of the temple as he carried the water very clumsily. This made the old man fairly angry, "Chad, how are you ever going to achieve true spirituality is you can't find a perfect balance within yourself? You can't even keep water in the bucket!"

"Yes, Master Hino," the man said in bizarre Australian surfer accent.

"Come on, now, that koi pond needs fresh water in it. It's been rather hot already this spring. Come on, before we open the temple!" That was when the phone began ringing.

In the main temple's worshiping space before the fire sat a young woman with raven black hair in her early 20's wearing a temple gown, chanting. Raye Hino spoke the words over and over again, "_I am flame. Flame is light. I am fire. Fire is sight. I am flame. Flame is light. I am fire. Fire is sight._" The problem was that even with her repeating the chant, the phone was still ringing causing her to lose focus and lose her temper. She yelled out, "Oh, for crying out...WILL ONE OF YOU GET THAT?! Come on!"

The woman's voice cut like a knife as Chad dropped the carrying pole and dropped both pails of water causing a mess. The little old man turned to the noise and saw what had happened. He started to turn red as Chad backed away, "I'm sorry. I'm _soooo_ sorry! I'll get the mop!" With that, Chad ran off to get the janitorial equipment.

The old man came up to the phone near the main entrance of the temple and answered it, "Cherry Hill Temple, may I ask what _your_ business is?"

Back in New York, Dan took his head away from the handset and looked at it. The man was rather loud; it almost ruptured his eardrum, "Aw, crap," he said softly so the phone didn't pick it up, "it's Raye's grandfather," "_Hello?! Is anyone there?!" _he heard yelled out the handset's speaker. He put the handset close enough to his ear so he could hear, but away enough to compensate for his volume, "Mr. Hino? I don't know if you remember me, but I'm one of Raye's friends? I was wondering if she was available to talk."

"_She's meditating at the moment. You wanna leave a message, or what?"_ The old man was really angry. He was now seeing where the hotheadedness came from in the family, "Yeah. Just tell her it's Dan from the United States," _He doesn't need a reminder I crashed into his roof 7 years ago, _he thought to himself.

"_Wait a minute, Raye only knows one person in the United States… You're that Ghostbuster that crashed into my roof, aren't you?!"_

"Uh..." Before he could say anything more, there was a very loud "CLICK!" on the phone, "I guess I didn't need to remind him."

The old man was still holding onto the handset of the phone angrily holding it in place on it's hook. Raye came into the foyer of the temple to see the short man turning red, "Grandpa, what happened? I heard yelling."

"Some idiot in America just called, wrong number," with that the old man walked away in a huff.

"America?" It wasn't that guy her and the others met in the Tennessee woods with that book of the dead. The only other person would be… "No."

Dan had hung up the phone on it's base. He calmly set the phone down on the end table. He kept looking at the phone as his hackles started to raise. He started to get angry as he looked at it. He started breathing heavy as he started to groan. He suddenly jumped to his feet while grabbing the phone and threw it across the bunk room, it's cord ripping from the wall as the slack ran out. Just then the bunk room door opened with Garrett rolling in to be greeted with a telephone flying over his head. He ducked then turned as the phone flew past him. The phone hit the floor in the dining area of the second floor, "Geez, I know rates are skyrocketing, but I didn't think the actual phones would take flight," he turned back to see Dan standing there, his eyes wide with the realization he almost hurt someone in his rage, "Garrett..."

"Great," the wheelchair-bound man said with malevolent sarcasm, "of all people to leave here alone, 'Loose Cannon' Shannon," he backed out of the room and proceeded back toward Egon's lab, "It's amazing this place isn't a smoldering pile of bricks with you here." As the man wheeled himself away, Dan sat back down on his bed and slowly put his head into his hands.

11:25 PM

Another day had come to an end. Egon and Dan were in the lab along with Kylie doing research on the sample given to them. Egon, sitting in his computer chair, had hit a wall and was trying to get more information from his student, "And they won't reveal what the exhibit is about?"

Kylie sat at a table that had several open books on various Norse artifacts, "No. After the whole 'Orb of Moldovia' thing that happened a few years ago, Museums and their curators absolutely refuse to let anyone see the exhibits before reveal."

Dan was leaning against the workbench next to Egon, "I'm surprised they let you leave with the sample," he said taking a drink of his Mountain Dew shortly after. Egon chimed in, "Dr. Rutherfold helped us once before. At one point, we were city contractors under the mayor of the time, Jock Mulligan. After he was voted out, we lost that luxury. During the Architect Incident, he managed to sneak us into the museum. Because we also saved his life, unlike other museum curators, he is willing to give us just enough to try and rectify the problem before it starts. Problem is, it doesn't always work."

"That's kinda… reactionary, isn't it?" the blonde engineer asked. "It's all we can do," the goth girl stated, "it's not like we can just muscle our way in somewhere."

"I never suggested that."

"We can't just beat down the curator either, the way you are."

Dan took a double-take at that, "Excuse me?"

Kylie got up from her chair and walked up to him, "Lets face it, you're not stable." Dan was absolutely confused, "Where the hell is this coming from? I never did anything to you to deserve this."

"Dan, Kylie," Egon was trying to keep his calm while stopping the conversation, "it's getting late. Why don't the two of you turn in for the night. We'll continue in the morning." Kylie scowled at Dan then walked out of the lab. She grabbed her school bag and walked down the stairs to exit the building. Dan was absolutely dumbfounded. There was some tension between the two of them, sure, but that was uncalled for in that regard, "Egon, what the fuck just happened?"

"I believe there was a telephone involved." Dan turned back to the scientist, "Telephone?" after a second, Dan realized what that meant, "Oh… _Oooooh._ Telephone. Right." Dan sat in the seat next to Egon putting his can of soda down as Egon asked, "What compelled you to throw the phone at Garrett?"

"I didn't do it to hurt him. I was trying to call someone and… Well..."

"Something happened where you threw it and Garrett just happened to..."

"Yeah."

"Don't think too much of it. You have to remember, the current team got to know each other before they got to know you. They've been through a lot together even before you came here," Egon rolled his chair over and put a hand on the man's shoulder, "much like we have. They trust each other. These kids need leadership. You're the best option to do so because I know you'll take care of them. In time, they'll trust you."

"Egon," Dan brushed the man's hand off him, "I've been here two and a half years. How much time is it going to take for them to trust me? It feels like when you ordered me and Winston to stay behind on my first field job."

Egon winced at that, "That was a rather hard tragedy you managed to save us from. On your own, no less."

"Eduardo's managed to grow to trust me, but I still have two hard critics to deal with," Dan stood up and paced the room like he did the night before, "And with them I'm going to have to deal with feedback that might get them hurt or killed. They're never going to trust me as long as there are dissenters among me."

"Well, I could always talk to them..."

"No, I don't want you to do that," Dan turned to Egon, "I just wish someone other than you and Janine were behind me. It would show I have capability; not just because I appear to be some favored flock of an older time." Dan looked to the clock. It was 10:30, "I'm gonna go to bed after I lock up. I'll see ya in the morning, dude." Dan walked out of the lab and headed for the stairs. As he walked down, Egon heard the man sigh a hard sigh. Despite his inability to express himself, Egon knew when others were stressed and distressed. He may have been a goofball, but Venkman knew his psychology, and being able to imbue it onto others was something of a godsend to Egon.

Still in his computer chair Egon wheeled himself over to his desktop computer and started loading up a program – America On-Line. He almost never used the program anymore; especially after he started getting porn in his mailbox because Ray needed to exercise discretion on using the word, "viscus" in a search term, but failed to do so. But tonight he logged on for a totally different reason. "**Welcome! You've Got Mail!" **He waited for his buddy list to load and checked to see if she was on. She was. AOL User XxMercuryIcexX. It had been years since he conversed with her, but a man's life was starting to hang in the balance. He clicked on the name and began typing in the window…

He pressed enter, and a chime was heard through the device's speakers…

**ESpenglerPhD:** Amy? Are you there?

He wasn't getting a response. He tried again.

**ESpenglerPhD:** Amy, its Egon. Please respond.

In a dorm room of a college campus a young blue-haired woman was packing some of her personal books into a set of boxes getting ready to move out for the summer. She had her hair short, but even then after bending over to place her books into said box some of her hair got into her face. She blew the strands of hair from her sight as she was about to go back to the shelf for more books when her laptop computer chimed. She stopped short and looked at the computer, "What?" Amy Mizuno stared at the device for a minute. There was a screensaver active on the screen so she didn't see any message on the screen. She crept toward the computer slowly just making sure she wasn't imagining the sound.

After a couple more seconds, she heard another chime. She picked up pace and quickly sat down at the device, interrupting the screensaver to reveal someone had indeed messaged her, "Oh, goodness! Dr. Spengler!" She typed her response and sent the message.

**XxMercuryIcexX:** Yes, Dr. Spengler, I'm here! How are you?

There was a moment of silence, then three chimes rang as Egon gave subsequent replies.

**ESpenglerPhD:** I'm fine.

**ESpenglerPhD:** Unfortunately, this isn't a social chat.

**ESpenglerPhD:** We need to talk about Lita.


	3. Hard Luck

Chapter 3: Hard Luck

Saturday June 15th 2002

Chiba Bank

Chiyoda District, Tokyo, Japan

10:45 AM

THUMP! A hard rubber stamp pounded onto a stack of paper. When the stamp was removed, it read, "DENIED" in big red letters. Before the stack of papers was a young woman with brown hair in a ponytail wearing a white dress shirt and rose earrings. She watched as the older man who owned the rubber stamp as well as the desk before her placed the stamp to the side and folded his hands across the paperwork. She had a look of shock riddled on her face, her mouth open in disappointed awe at what just happened, "I-I don't understand. Did I fill it out incorrectly?"

Lita Kino was sitting before her local bank's loan officer. She was making an attempt to get a loan to start her own bakery, but alas, "Ms. Kino, in order for us to approve a loan of this size for a business like yours, it comes with a rather large level of risk. If the business fails, how would you be able to pay us for the remainder of the loan?"

"Well," the woman said sheepishly, "I did bring a platter of samples for you to try. Was there something wrong with them?" "Ms. Kino," the man said as he looked to the plate of baked goods Lita had brought, "Just because your cookies and cupcakes are good doesn't absolve you of the potential financial liability you may not be able to commit to," Lita looked down at her lap as the man explained further, "As of this moment you practically have no credit to your name. You don't even have any assets in which to _cover _anything in the event of a business forfeiture. I'm sorry, Ms. Kino, but you're too high a gamble for a loan. There is, however, still a way for you to get one."

Lita looked back up, her green eyes gleaming at the man at the desk, "There is? Please, tell me!"

In another cubicle on the other side of the bank a female banking representative was talking with a young couple when Lita's voice echoed across the whole bank, "I NEED TO RAISE _HOW MUCH?_" The bank rep and the couple looked in the direction of the echo, then the rep turned back to the couple, "Don't mind her, she's trying for a business loan," shortly after she pointed to a plate of cookies on the desk, "Oh, would you like one? They're really good!"

12:03 PM

Lita walked from the train station to her job – a small diner located in Shibuya – with her head hung low. She had on the white dress shirt, a brown pleated skirt, and a pair of brown flats as required by her job along with her bag with her jacket slung over said bag. The denial was hard enough, but now the only option she had seemed so far away. She looked up to the lighted signs of the street and saw a clock; it was reading past noon, "Oh, no! I'm late!" Another thing to add to the list of things that went wrong today. She started running through the crowds of high school-aged kids heading to the various venues that made the district. She came to a small alleyway filled with people shopping and dining at the cafes.

She cut to the back of another alley and managed to reach the employee entrance of where she worked. She reached her locker and started putting her bag into it, then quickly pulled out an apron. As she did, a much older woman came up to her and started yelling, "Ms. Kino!" Lita jumped and turned around to her, "You are 5 minutes late!"

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Ueno! I was coming from Chiba and..." "No excuses! We have a lunch crowd the size of 10 armies in town and you wander in late?" The old lady approached Lita pointing a finger in the young woman's face, causing her to back into her own locker, "That's the same as _stealing_, young lady! Just for your tardiness, I'm deducting one hour of pay from your time today!"

"But..."

"Do you want to make it _two _hours? Make another sound!" Lita bit her lower lip, her brow tightly knit in terror of the old woman before her. After a moment the old woman backed away and lowered her finger, "Now get out there and get to work!" The old woman walked away grumbling to herself as she went to the management office, slamming the door behind her.

Lita slid down the door to her locker and went into the fetal position. A tear came down her cheek as she closed her eyes.

9:30 PM

Lita walked from the bus stop up the pathway to Cherry Hill Temple as she had for years, this time more broken than she ever had been before. This was the Saturday from hell in her opinion. As she approached, rain began falling from the sky. When the first raindrops hit her in the head, heavy and full as they were, she closed her eyes and stopped, her eyes filling with tears as the rain picked up pace. Her heart was hurting worse than ever.

"Lita?" She opened her eyes and saw no one, by now her tears being lost in the rain. She looked for a moment, but then instinctively looked down in front of her to see a little black cat with a crescent moon symbol on its forehead, "Lita, why are you standing here like this?" the little black cat asked with impossibility. "Luna? Well, I..." Lita was about to explain, but became silent, her mouth ready to say something but ultimately came short. "Well," the black cat spoke, "come on, then." The cat turned and headed into the temple. Lita followed behind, but walked rather slowly as though she intentionally wanted to get rained on.

Before stepping in, she removed her brown flat-soled shoes then walked inside. Once inside a short little old man bowed before her, "Good evening, Ms. Kino, may I take your jacket for you?" Raye's Grandfather was always courteous, but he always seemed to be especially courteous to Lita or even Serena when they showed up. The jacket she was wearing was taken from her then folded across the old man's arm "Raye is in the main Prayer temple. Show yourself inside," like a show presenter he showed the way by pointing the way with both arms into the main prayer temple. Moving past the beads she walked into the main temple area to be greeted by at least 3 of her friends, one she hadn't seen in a long time, "Amy?"

A young woman with blue hair stood from her position, "Lita!" Lita quickened her pace and hugged the woman before her, "Amy, I missed you _sooo _much!" Amy gasped as Lita held her up in the air, "Lita, good… Too... I... Can't… breathe..." Upon hearing that Lita let her down and let her go, "Oh, god! I'm _sooo_ sorry!" Amy collapsed to her knees trying to regain her breath, trying to talk as she did, "it's," she gasped, "okay," she crawled to her position at the table as Lita took hers.

An Hour had passed and Mina was talking, "… So Serena and Darien are still in the Alps on vacation with nothing to report. The only one left to report anything is Amy."

Throughout the whole report Lita had sat in relative silence as everything played out before her. Even though Amy was back from college, Lita felt nothing from her words much like Mina's before her. "Lita?" The woman looked up and noticed Raye, Mina, and Amy were looking at her, Raye attempting to get her attention, "Is something the matter? You've been quite this whole time." Lita shook her head lightly and looked back down, "It's nothing. It was just a bad day." "You didn't get the loan, did you?"

This confused Amy. She turned to Mina, "Loan?" "Lita's been trying to start her bakery. She went to Chiba today to get the loan."

"They said I don't have enough credit to my name," Lita explained, "I don't have enough collateral, and the risk is too high for failure. They gave me one option to lower my interest rate and get the loan; raise one million yen."

"A MILLION YEN?!" all three girls said in unison. Mina responded first, "That's absurd! With the money you make at that diner as a server?!" "Couldn't you get someone to Co-Sign with you?" Amy asked.

"Well, as you guys know, my parents died when I was young and my grandparents who lived in Futaba took care of my apartment and school affairs up here. Both my grandparents died right after high school."

Raye realized, "That's right, you moved to Futaba for a few months to take care of them in hospice. I forgot."

Lita continued, "My grandparents didn't have much, and I have no family left to co-sign with, and I'm not about to ask you guys; you're in the same boat as me."

Raye put her hands on the table pushed herself up, "I think you need a change of pace, and all of us know what it is," Lita looked up to her friend as she spoke, "Amy already told me and Mina, and frankly, I think this will put the color back in your cheeks!" She looked to her blue-haired friend as she straightened up from her position at the table, "Tell her!"

"Egon Spengler got in contact with me yesterday afternoon." Lita's head shot up quickly as Amy continued, "Apparently, the Ghostbusters have been back in operation since late 1998 and have been commanded by someone we all know since 2000." Lita had been listening since Egon's name in tentative shock, but what happened next made Lita's heart jump a beat, "Dr. Spengler has requested, at your leisure, to come to New York City."

Lita gripped her chest as the suggestion dropped into her lap. She looked back and forth to her friends. Her reaction was something they hoped for seeing how she'd been acting the whole meeting, but there was something she wanted to know, "Amy, tell me… Who's commanding the team?"

Amy giggled a little as she knew what was about to happen...

From outside of the temple, the black cat and a white cat sat under the roof on the porch watching the rain fall. The white cat, like its black counterpart, had a crescent moon symbol on its forehead. He turned to the other cat, "Hey, Luna?"

"Yes, Artemis?"

"They've been talking for a long time now. Do you think Amy told Lita about Dr. Spengler's message yet?" That was when both cats heard Lita scream in excitement. Both of them jumped at the sound then quickly turned to the door of the temple. All they saw was a streak of brown and white sail past them out the door and quickly pick up the brown flats just outside. Luna yelled out, "Lita! Where are you going?"

She turned and stumbled as she was putting on her shoes in the rain, "I'm goin' to New York! I gotta pack!" She turned back toward the path and ran toward the bus stop outside the temple grounds. The two cat guardians along with the other three girls stood on the porch watching their friend took off like lightning. Artemis looked to Luna, "I guess I can take that as a 'yes'."

The next morning Lita arrived at work wearing her normal clothes carrying a box. She walked to the management office and knocked on the door. The old woman opened the door and saw the young woman standing before her, "Ms. Kino, where is your uniform?" Lita scowled at the old woman then presented the box, "Right here, Ueno!"

"That's MRS. Ueno, young lady!"

"Like hell it is!" Lita bellowed out. The old woman went to snatch the box out of her hands when Lita deliberately dropped the box to the floor, it opening up revealing her uniform. The clothes scattered out of the box at the old woman's feet. The old woman shot her a dirty look, but Lita responded with a venomous, sarcastic, "Oops."

"Get the hell outta my restaurant, you ungrateful..."

Lita cut her off, "Ungrateful? You promised me 3 years ago I would be promoted to chef and you've been jerking me around since! You keep finding reasons to dock my pay and embarrass me in front of the other waitresses. I'm ungrateful? You're using me like cheap labor and I'm sick of it! So here's what you're gonna do to make it up to me; pay back all my docked pay on my last paycheck, _or else._"

The old woman eyeballed her and stepped closer, "'Or else', _what?_" A smirk came across Lita's face.

People were inside the diner having their Sunday breakfast. Conversations went on creating a fair level of noise but the next noise would come from the kitchen that would trump all of it, "_Oh my god!_ There's cockroaches in the pancake batter!" Everyone stopped eating and the diner went dead silent. A man in a booth with his wife stopped chewing his food and looked at the pancakes before him. He looked back at his wife, "Did she say, 'cockroaches in the pancake batter'?"

Lita yelled again, "There's rat droppings in the coffee grounds!" Everyone in the diner that had coffee instantly spit the drink out of their mouths. People started getting up to leave in mass, some of them running quickly feeling the sudden urge to vomit. The old woman popped her head out of the kitchen door to look at the people leaving. Her normal Grinch-like face changed to one of panic, then went back into the kitchen and looked at the young woman before her, "You have to tell them it isn't true! You have to get my customers back!"

"Are you gonna pay me what you owe," Lita crossed her arms and smirked again, "or do I have to say your breakfast sausage has maggots in it?"

Lita walked out of the diner with a check in her hand. She folded it and placed it into her purse then looked around her in the Shibuya district and took a deep breath, "That felt _great!_ I should have done that sooner!" Now she had enough money to get a ticket to New York. She put her hand up and hailed a taxi. _Dan_, she thought to herself, _I'm on my way!_


	4. Interrupted Routine

Chapter 4: Interrupted Routine

Tuesday, June 18th 2002

Ghostbusters HQ

2:25 PM

Lucky Black approached the firehouse slowly, Ecto-1 shortly behind it. The truck's engine was sputtering hard as it parked in it's usual spot just past the double doors of the firehouse. The main double doors of the firehouse opened as the Cadillac swung out into the street and backed into the garage area of the old building. Roland Jackson stepped out of the driver seat and walked out to the pickup just as Dan and Eduardo stepped out. Small amounts of smoke started trickling out of the truck's supercharger as Dan took off the ram tunnel.

"Compression issues again?" the black techno-wiz asked. Dan popped the hood as he responded, "Yep. I think I got a new problem, too," He closed the truck's door and went to the front of the vehicle to open the hood. As soon as he did, he could hear hissing, "Oh, great," the engineer stated, "I think my water pump is screwed." Eduardo walked up next to him, "Are you sure?" "Why do you think it was overheating, penis wrinkle?" That was when the radiator cap blew on the truck, throwing boiling hot yellow fluid and steam straight up into the hood of the truck. All three Ghostbusters jumped back as the fluid shot out like geyser. Dan facepalmed, "This is all I fucking need right now."

"What were you expecting with a $500 truck?" the Latino stated out loud.

"Hey, this thing has given me great service over the last 3 years. Besides, it's not the amount I paid; it's the fact the truck has 325,000 miles on it," Dan then dropped the hood back down locking it in place. The mileage surprised Roland, "325,000? How did you manage to put on that much mileage?"

"It wasn't all me," Dan walked back to the bed of the truck and opened the tonneau cover revealing Dan and Eduardo's Proton Packs, "I bought this truck from a Chicago Police auction. The jagoff that owned it was a drug-runner. That's why it's black and supercharged; the guy was making runs from Española, New Mexico to Coal City, Illinois every week doing most of the driving in the middle of the night. Guy had to do an oil change every day to keep the thing in top condition. Guy was finally busted a year after he started operations."

"Wait," Eduardo started pulling out his Proton Pack, "I thought you said you bought your original truck from the police auction?"

Dan grabbed his pack, "I did, and that's true, too. Both trucks were owned by the same guy. The first time he got busted back in 94' he had what was my original Lucky Black, too. That was why both trucks were made up the same. He went to trial the first time, but got off on a technicality." All three men walked inside, "Anyway, Roland, if you got time, I need you to take me to the auto parts store then help me install a new pump."

"I donno," Roland had a look on his face that made him appear worried, "One of my little sisters is having a birthday party in a few hours. I donno if I can." "If we go now, you should have enough time. It's right up the street." Roland thought about it for a moment, "Okay, but we better be quick. We'll take my Mustang." Dan nodded his head and put his Proton Pack down, "Hey Eddie, take my pack up to Egon; something's wrong with the flight's speed control."

Eduardo was already in the back of the Ecto-1 loading his pack into it. Due to the truck not acting right, Dan ordered Eduardo to empty packs and other equipment from the truck in case the truck wasn't going to be fixable right away. Eduardo crawled out of the back of the old ambulance and responded, "Huh? Oh, yeah. Sure." As soon as Dan and Roland were out of sight, Eduardo closed the back of the Ecto-1 and started heading toward the stairs.

Janine was at her desk as always and witnessed the whole conversation take place. As Eduardo passed by her desk, she spoke up, "Eduardo?" He stopped and turned to the woman at the desk, "Uh, yeah, Janine?" "Dan just asked you to take that pack to Egon."

"Yeah," he responded, "I heard him."

There was a silence.

"Well?" The redheaded secretary asked.

"'Well,' What?"

Janine grunted as she rubbed her eyes from behind her glasses, "You know, the things that poor man has to put up with, especially after what he did for you the other night." That confused Eduardo, "...The other night?" "It's no wonder he feels like no matter what he has no respect from you."

Eduardo cocked an eyebrow, "...What are you talking about?"

Outside just in front of Lucky Black was Roland's blue '67 Ford Mustang. Dan had just stepped inside of the car as Roland started it up. The car started pulling away just as a taxi cab pulled up to the firehouse. Lita stepped out of the cab and looked up to the sign hanging in the front of the building; the familiar red and white logo with a cartoonish ghost in a red circle/slash. The sign swayed in the summer breeze revealing the original name of the building, "Hook & Ladder 8."

"Alright, Miss," the cab driver said unloading Lita's two bags, "I gotta say, most other Japanese-types usually wanna see the Statue of Liberty or the Brooklyn Bridge or something when they arrive first. Why do you wanna see these whackos?"

"Whackos?!" Lita obviously took offense to that, snatching her bags out of the man's hands, "These, 'whackos,' saved me and my friends' lives some years ago!"

"Really," the driver scoffed, "What'd dey do? _Not_ show up to your house and blow it apart?"

Lita clinched her hands hard around her luggage handles, "How dare you."

"Yeah, whatever. Thanks for choosing Yellow Checker, now go have fun with your friends," The driver chuckled as he got into his cab and took off. She watched the cab disappear around a corner, "Man, New Yorkers are _jerks!_ Dan wasn't kidding when he said they were." She walked into the still open door of the firehouse and saw the Ecto-1 parked inside the door. She stopped for a moment and looked at the old vehicle, "Nice to know they still have the car," Lita remembered back when the Ghostbusters where in Tokyo fighting the ghost of Negaverse general Jedite, and the insane ride Ray Stantz gave her and the other Sailor Scouts on their way to Starlight Tower. That was a very scary day for everyone, but Ray's driving was even scarier.

"...What are you talking about?" That was when Lita finally noticed people talking. She walked past the Cadillac and noticed a thinner man wearing a green polo shirt with a brown leather vest over it. He was talking to an older redheaded woman in glasses and a matching blazer/skirt combination, and the redhead was looking to lose her patience becoming particularly clear in her Brooklyn-accented voice, her standing from behind her desk, "What am I talking about? That man asked you nicely to do something for him and as soon as he leaves, you just go on your merry way? You're gonna pick that Proton Pack up and take it upstairs _with you,_ or I'm gonna sick Slimer on you _so bad..._" That was when the woman looked to the side of the Ecto-1 and noticed Lita standing there, "Oh! Hello, Miss. I didn't see you standing there."

The man in front of her turned around and looked at her. She got a good look at his face. He had a chin-strap goatee and had an earring in his left ear; his facial features were clearly Hispanic. After he got a good look at her back, a smarmy look came over his face, "Why, _hellooo, buena mujer!"_

"Eduardo!" the older woman's vocal tone made the man wince, "Take that Proton Pack upstairs to the lab like your boss asked you to! NOW!" Eduardo scrambled to pick up an unfamiliar design backpack device off the floor by the Ecto-1's rear wheel and started running up the stairs with it. Lita and the older woman watched as he ran out of sight, then the woman turned back to Lita, "I'm sorry about that; Eduardo's a good guy, but he has a real lazy streak about him."

"Are you Janine Melnitz?" Lita asked. Janine looked at her puzzled, "I am." Lita put down her luggage, "I'm very pleased to meet you," she bowed before the Ghostbusters' secretary then put out her hand to shake, "I'm Lita Kino. Dan has told me so much about you!" Janine took the woman's hand and began to shake it when a look of pain came over her face. Lita let go as Janine shook her hand in pain, "Geez, kid; you got quite the grip there." Lita winced at that, "Yeah, sorry! I do that to everyone it seems." Janine began recalling the name, "Wait, did you say you're Lita?" The woman nodded, her ponytail bouncing slightly as she did, "Oh, wow. I just saw a picture from when you were younger. You grew into quite the young woman." Lita blushed slightly at that.

A noise was heard back toward the stairs as the one man from before – Eduardo – was walking down the stairs. Along with him was a young woman with black hair, white facial foundation, and black makeup in a black bodysuit, and an older blonde haired man with is hair in a ponytail wearing glasses and a blue sweater. The older man seemed to be limping slightly as the man in the green polo stopped and pointed toward Lita. The three of them reached the bottom of the stairs as from behind the filing cabinets at Janine's desk, another auburn haired man in a tan Ghostbusters flightsuit and a wheelchair rolled toward the stairs. When he got closer, Lita recognized the man in the sweater, "Egon?"

Egon Spengler indeed limped up to the woman and greeted his old friend, hand out to shake hers, "Lita, how good it is to see yooOOUUUGH!" Lita walked up and put the man into a bear hug, lifting him up as she did Amy a few nights before, "Oh, Egon, it's been _sooo_ long!" This alarmed the other three Ghostbusters and their secretary as the man that was being lifted was clearly not enjoying what was happening…

That was until everyone heard a wet SNAP! The man's face changed from in pain to surprise. By that point, Lita put him down and backed away from him quickly as she realized what she just did, "Oh, god! Egon, I didn't mean to hurt you, I'm sorry!"

"On the contrary," the physicist said in his usual monotone voice, moving his legs around freely, "I was having neuralgia in my lumbosacral region causing irritated signals to travel down my sciatic. You seemed to have corrected the problem."

Lita tilted her head to the side, "I'm sorry, what happened?" The woman in makeup translated for her, "He pinched a nerve in his back." Lita put her hands together sheepishly and spoke in a confused tone, "Glad to be of service… I guess?"

"At any juncture," Egon began, "welcome to New York. You already met Janine, it seems," Lita nodded, "This is Kylie Griffin; She's my ace student. She's very astute with occult literature and anthropology." The gothic woman stepped forward to shake Lita's hand, Lita being more gentle this time around.

"This is Eduardo Rivera; Him and Dan are continuing our SERVe first-response program Dan and Winston piloted in the mid-90's. Under Dan's leadership Eduardo has become quite the tactician." The man in the green polo stepped up again and grabbed the tips of Lita's hand, "Very pleased to meet you, _flor radiante._" Eduardo kissed the top of her hand like a gentleman. As much as she appreciated the gesture, it was still a little too unnerving for her. She noticed Kylie pinching the bridge of her nose and shaking her head as she watched Eduardo do this.

The man in the wheelchair rolled toward her nearly knocking Eduardo down, not waiting for Egon to introduce him, "How ya' doin', young lady? Name's Garrett Miller; Ghostbuster extraordinaire! I'm also an excellent tour guide of the city – especially the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood," he winked as he mentioned his native area of New York, "If there's anything I can do to help you, don't hesitate to call for the ol' G-Man."

She recognized the attitude. She went from looking at Garrett to looking at Egon, "Egon, did you and Ray try to clone Peter, or something?"

Garrett gave a look of indignance, "Hey!"

Kylie put her hand to her mouth trying to hold back a laugh; one of the few times she was caught off guard enough to actually laugh at an insult at someone else's expense. Eduardo gave a chuckle as he looked to his fellow Ghostbuster, "Man, that's gotta hurt; being compared to Venkman."

Garrett was not amused, "Yeah, hilarious. Hardy-friggan-har."

Egon interrupted everyone by clearing his throat, knowing that was a rather decent dig at one of his students, "Everyone, I want you to meet a friend of the original team, Lita Kino," Lita waved again as Egon continued, "We met Lita and her friends during a large case we had in Tokyo – our third trip into the country of Japan. She also happens to be Dan's significant other." Everyone's eyes shot open when Egon said that; everyone, accept Eduardo, "Wait, what does, 'Significant...'"

"She's his girlfriend, you colossal idiot!" Kylie slapped Eduardo in the back of the head as she yelled, "You know, that thing you _would_ have if you stopped acting like an inept retard?" Kylie grunted as she walked back up the stairs. Eduardo rubbed the back of his head, "What was _that_ all about?"

"You?" Garrett's attitude seemed to change, and it was apparent in his voice and on his face, "You are dating that flippant nutjob? _You _are dating, 'Loose Cannon' Shannon?" Lita didn't like Garrett's description of Dan. She was starting to notice there was a thick tension in the air, but she didn't understand why. "Honey, let me give you a dollar's worth of free advice: Get away from him before you get hurt."

"Garrett!" Egon had a flutter of irritation in his voice as he attempted to stop the young man from saying more. Lita was physically clenching her fists. Garrett looked into Lita's green eyes, his steely blue eyes showing no fear for the woman before him. After a moment of staring each other down, Garrett backed his chair up and turned back toward the elevator, speaking as he did, "I'll be down in the containment area; we have a lot of traps to empty today." With that, the wheelchair-bound Ghostbuster disappeared behind Janine's cabinets.

Lita was standing before Egon and Eduardo bewildered by what just happened with two of Dan's fellow Ghostbusters, "I don't get it; everyone was so nice to me before you mentioned I was with Dan. Why?"

"It has nothing to do with you, sweetheart," Janine said as she walked up behind her, "It's just that… well…"

"Everyone else thinks he's nuts," Eduardo finished the sentence; abit far more blunt about it.

"_Eduardo!"_ Janine growled.

"No, Janine!" Eduardo said, picking up his voice to be stern, "I'm not going to let her suffer because those two don't like him!" He turned back to Lita and explained, "The man is not the most popular around here. I used to think like those two did. Since Egon here put me with him, I gotta say the man knows how to think on his feet, and for that, I respect him."

"If you believe that about him, Eduardo," Egon asked, "why don't you say anything in his defense?"

"Because it would make me the odd man out. He blows up a lot of things on the job and has a temper so short even fuses don't go nearly as quick."

"Well, I know about the short temper part," Lita said as she rubbed the back of her neck in thought, "I have the same issue."

"All I'm saying is I'm already at the butt of Garrett's jokes, and Kylie has issues with me as it is," the Latino Ghostbusters said with vigor, "the thing that would make my day all the better is if I'm lumped into that idiotic corral."

Lita scoffed, "You respect the man, but you'd throw him under the bus to save your own image?"

"Hey, I owe that man my _life_!" Eduardo said with sincerity. Lita watch the man's face change as though a frightening image had passed his mind's eye. He spoke more softly, "He will have all he needs when the time comes. Don't ask me why I think that, but what's happening now? It'll all change."

Outside, Roland parked his Mustang as the both of them stepped out, Dan holding a box containing a new water pump for his truck. They continue their conversation as they do so, "...so that's what I think is happening; the rotor blades on the blower are getting blowby and I'm getting jack shit for compression at the intake."

Roland responded back, walking back toward the truck with the man holding the vehicle part, "Chances are the teflon on the blades is worn out. Doesn't sound like a fun rebuild project."

"Won't be cheap, either. I might…" Dan stopped mid-sentence when a familiar feeling came over him, halting his walking shortly afterward. Roland wasn't paying attention to the man's walking as much as his words, "You might what?" When he didn't get a response, he stopped and turned around, "Dan? Dan, you okay?" Dan looked at Roland, a look of some kind of confusion on the man's face. After a brief moment, and without saying a word, Dan turned to the main firehouse doors and ran in quickly.

Lita was responding to Eduardo's statement, "Still, I don't think…" she stopped talking in the middle of her thoughts. There was this very warm feeling coming over her; one she hadn't felt since 7 years ago. The distance was close. She turned around.

Dan reached the back of the Ecto-1 by Janine's desk. She saw Janine, Egon, Eduardo, and a young woman standing among them. He stopped walking and stood there as the woman turned toward him.

Lita saw a blonde-haired man in a navy blue jumpsuit with gray trim rush from behind Ecto-1 and stop. In his hand was a small box. Her eyes lit up as she realized who it was before her. He had a beard this time around, but she knew it was him, "Dan?"

The woman called out his name. He dropped the boxed water pump as he slowly crept toward her as to make sure he wasn't imagining her, "Lita?" After that, he held his breath. She nodded as a large smile came to her face. Dan quickly rushed toward her as she did the same. As they both reached each other, Lita jumped into the air and onto him. Dan grabbed her and held her in the air as she kissed him multiple times. Dan put her down and had one slow kiss to finish the exciting moment. "Lita," Dan said as he held her close, the both of them holding onto each other tight, "My god, it's been too long."

Lita spoke softly as a tear rolled down her cheek, this time it being a tear of joy, "I missed you so much," a quiver in her voice, "I've been hurting this whole time."

A feeling of relief came over Dan in what seemed like forever. He took a deep breath and spoke to her, "So have I, but it's going to be okay now."

Janine put her hands together, "Oh Egon, isn't that sweet?" Without letting his college professor answer his secretary, Eduardo put his hands into his pockets, "Yeah, and it's giving me diabetes. I'm goin' upstairs," the man walked his way up the stairs as he intended. Roland came from behind the Ecto-1 and saw what was happening before him, "What'd I miss?"


	5. House Guest

Chapter 5: House Guest

3:15 PM

The upstairs bunk room door opened as Dan brought in Lita's luggage. Lita followed behind as Dan unloaded the bags near one of the bunks, "Dan, I have enough to get a motel. I don't wanna crowd you guys out."

"We have plenty of room," Dan responded, "No one but me sleeps here. Egon practically lives in the lab, Janine and the other field Ghostbusters have their own places, and as you can see, Peter, Ray, and Winston are no longer here," he unloaded the last bag onto Ray's old bed, "Besides, both me and Egon _insist_." Lita looked at the man before him, crossed her arms, and gave the Ghostbuster a smarmy inquisitive look. Dan averted his eyes as he knew what the look was about, a smirk coming to his face, "Okay, more me than Egon," Dan looked back up at her and shrugged slightly. Lita smiled and laughed as she dropped her arms to her sides. Dan walked up to her and put his hands onto her shoulders, "My god, I missed you," he slid his hands behind her and placed her into an embrace again, her returning it in kind.

Lita was in shear bliss. She had met Dan 7 years ago on his assignment to Japan in October of 1995 for the Japanese government. While on an inspection of her school by the park where people were disappearing, Lita met him while she was on her way to her locker. His detection equipment picked up the fact she was Sailor Jupiter - Princess of the planet Jupiter and protector of the Moon Princess Serena. When they first met, Dan pointed his Proton Pack's Particle Thrower into her face after rounding a corner. She subsequently knocked him down with him quickly rebounding. He was not thrilled about the meeting, but the both of them had parted on friendly enough terms.

Meeting again after crashing into Raye's grandfather's temple on the other hand...

The alarm sounded. Dan snapped his attention to the alarm then proceeded to the nearest firepole in the corner of the room. It was jarring for Lita because it was the first time she actively saw the Ghostbusters working out of their own base of operations. It really was like the fire department back home. Lita followed Dan to the pole.

Dan reached ground level and ran to Janine's desk, "Janine?"

"We have at least 50 calls for the Greenwich Village," the Ghostbusters' secretary moved a pile of post-it notes forward to the edge of her desk, "There's some kinda huge hulking beast wandering through the neighborhood. It's destroyed houses and several of the roads leading into the area. It's heading north to Chelsea. The whole area is being evacuated." By this time Lita had slid down the pole to hear what was left of the report.

"Shit!" Dan said aloud, "The truck's still out! It's the only thing that's got four wheel drive to get over the destruction to get a field reading!"

By this time Roland had walked into the garage area wiping his hands with a cloth, "Just got the pump installed." "Really?" Dan asked, "Damn, you really are the Scotty of this outfit, aren't ya?" by this time, Eduardo and Kylie had slid down other poles leading into the garage approaching Janine's desk, Eduardo wearing Dan's experimental pack. Before Janine could say anything, Dan called Eduardo's name and waved him outside to the S-10 Xtreme. Lita was lost in the mess of protocol that made the Ghostbusters famous. She walked up to Dan and put a hand on his shoulder, "Dan, let me come with you! Please?"

Dan stopped and turned to her, "No." Lita was taken aback by that. She was about to protest when Dan explained, "If it was any other call like a house inspection or a class 4 or something, I would. This sounds like a major problem." Lita was going to protest again when Dan stopped her, "Just stay here, okay?" With that Dan turned to the main door and rushed past the Ecto-1 to his vehicle outside. She came outside behind him and watched as he and Eduardo entered the truck. She heard the motor start and rev, the supercharger giving a whine as the wheels squealed from their standstill position.

Roland was still standing by the door with the rag in his hand. He approached the woman to see what she saw, a look of annoyance rittling her face as she spoke, "I can't believe this!" Roland threw the rag into the dirty rag bin by the Ecto-1 as he spoke, "You can't get mad at him. If I hadn't seen my girlfriend in several years I wouldn't want her running out into a situation that would get her hurt."

Lita looked to the man in the light gray Ghostbuster uniform and just noticed him not moving anywhere quickly. She was confused by this, "Um… aren't you guys gonna go with them?"

"Their job is to get field readings," Kylie said as she walked up to the two of them, securing the modified orange set of football pads used to carry the ghost trap, "Once they get valances and a physical description, we load up with the proper equipment while Egon does research."

"It's called the SERVe Program," Roland explained, "**S**upplemental **E**ctoplasmic **R**esponse **Ve**hicle. They'll be radioing back information soon; Greenwich Village isn't that far away."

"Traps!" Everyone turned toward the elevator to see Garrett rolling into the garage with a set of ghost traps in his lap yelling like a peanut vendor at a baseball field, "Traps! Get your fresh, clean traps here!" Kylie grabbed one from the wheelchair-bound man and set it on her back hooking it to her harness. Lita had been looking at the equipment for some time and noticed nothing looked the same as it did. Even the ghost trap Kylie had was _huge_ compared to the old caution-striped box units the Original Ghostbusters had, "What happened to your old equipment?"

Roland was taking the traps from Garrett and began loading them into Ecto-1, opening the back door as he did, "A new subset of ghosts started inhabiting the city and the original equipment didn't have enough power, so me and Egon designed and built new equipment that would use these," while still inside the Cadillac he pulled an orange and yellow canister off one of the new Proton Packs, "These cartridges inject ionized hydrogen into the pack to boost its power. From there, Kylie deploys the new trap that's been increased in size to accommodate the higher amount of protons we now use."

"I don't get it," Lita said shaking her head in confusion, "Amy would understand this stuff if she was here."

Garrett sighed, "Bigger guns for bigger nasties. Rolo, you need to remember not everyone can speak Egon's language like you and Kylie."

"I wasn't speaking like Egon; that's why you understood it." "What is this?" Garrett asked, annoyed, "Pick on the cripple day?" The phone was still ringing with Janine putting people on hold as she tried to catch up. It was going to be a tense few minutes.

Lucky Black was traveling through SoHo from Tribeca as traffic was gridlocked. People were fleeing from the area on foot and by car as panic was setting in. With the lights on and siren blaring the pickup truck hopped the curb and started driving on the sidewalk. Eduardo grabbed the handle on the ceiling of the truck as the vehicle rocked back and forth. People quickly moved out of the way as the truck slowly made its way past the clogged streets of Manhattan.

Dan blew the truck's horn and yelled out of his window at the people, "Come on, out of the way! Make a hole!" Progress was slow, but it was there. The truck finally cut across the boundary into Greenwich Village and up to a police barricade. Eduardo sank into his seat as Dan talked to one of the supervisors on site, "Where's the ugly mofo?"

The cop spoke up, "It managed to get to 17th and 9th. The Meatpacking District got hit, too."

"Please tell me you didn't do anything to it," Dan was unnerved of the kind of answer he might get. "Some of us fired on it," Dan facepalmed hard as the cop continued, "The 6th precinct was destroyed after that happened. We thought it would be affected by tear gas and shotgun shells; the thing looks like a huge zombie!"

Dan took his hand away from his face, "Zombie?"

"Yeah, it had gray skin. It smelled like a rotting corpse; and I've ID'd people who were found floating and rotted in Wallabout Bay." "Okay," Dan was beginning to get disgusted, "you're lucky I skipped lunch today. What's the best route for the Ecto-1 to follow?"

"There isn't. You'll have to brute force your way around all the destroyed cars and buildings; not even the firefighters can get in."

"Thanks, we'll take it from here Officer," Dan reactivated the siren and took off past the barrier into the affected part of town, "Eddie, start recording readings," Eduardo took a PKE meter out of the glove box as Dan turned on the two-way radio and grabbed the mic, "Lucky Black to HQ, come in."

Back at the firehouse Janine grabbed the radio mic on her desk and responded, "Headquarters. What's the report?"

There was a burst of static as Dan responded, "_Avoid going through SoHo; it's absolute chaos up here! Also, all the streets going through the area are blocked. You're gonna have to find a plow truck or bulldozer to clear a path." _Egon was now at Janine's desk as the initial report came. He came down, pressed the talk button, and spoke, "Dan, Egon. What are your current readings?"

Dan extended his hand for Eduardo to hand him the meter. Dan took a glimpse at the readings, then handed the meter back to his passenger, "PKE is at 942. We just entered the Greenwich Village neighborhood and the police have stated the creature is halfway through Chelsea…" Dan rounded the corner and found the creature's path of destruction, "Holy shit!"

"What do you see?" Egon responded. Dan replied, "_Half of the apartments in this place are friggan _gone_, dude! They're just piles of debris in the street!"_ "What's the matter?" Garrett started, "'Demolition Dan' upset he's got nothing left to break?"

Lita was hearing what was happening through the radio. She was starting to get worried about what was happening. She knew from the map of New York that was posted on one of the walls that this Chelsea neighborhood wasn't that far away. Looking at the map, she knew she could…

Her thoughts were interrupted as Roland got everyone's attention, "Okay, according to Dan's readings we're looking at a low class 7. It may be higher due to distance. We're going to have to gear up with max firepower. Garrett, get the spare canisters in Peter's old office." The wheeled man headed into the office space behind Janine's desk as Lita spoke up, "But you guys don't know what you're up against yet!" Kylie opened the front passenger door of the Cadillac as she responded, "If he had a reading at 950 while still being a mile away, we have to assume the worst."

Lita didn't like the sound of that, "And what's the worst to assume?"

Garrett rolled to the back of the still open Cadillac door placing a bandoleer of Proton Canisters into it, "We might not be able to fight it; not without someone getting hurt," he reached back inside the door and pressed a button to extend the wheelchair ramp. He backed up and rolled onto the ramp and into the car, "Or maybe even killed." With that, Garrett retracted the ramp and closed the door. Kylie and Roland followed suit stepping into the old ambulance and starting the vehicle up. The lights and the siren turned on as the vehicle stormed out of the garage area of the firehouse, the doors closing shortly after.

Lita watched the vehicle leave until the last. As the doors closed Egon walked up to the young woman and placed a hand onto her shoulder, "Don't let Garrett's words make you worry. We both know Dan can take care of himself. Come on," Egon shook his hand in part pulling her into his direction, "Go on upstairs and get some sleep. Traveling over the international dateline leaves one disoriented." Lita looked at the scientist behind her. She nodded and walked up the stairs along with him.

Egon lead her to the bunk room once again and opened the door, "I'll be in my lab across the floor here. Let either Janine or myself know if there's anything you need." Lita slowly walked into the room and turned to the door. She spoke softly, "I will. Thank you, Egon." Egon smiled and slowly closed the door. Once she heard the door latch go, "click"...

She bolted to her luggage on the one bunk and started tearing through the clothes she packed. She dug and dug as she finally found what she was looking for. It was a green rod with a molded star at the head with the symbol of Jupiter in the star. She looked at the device, "I knew this would come in handy. Now I need to get to Chelsea."

Outside of the firehouse, Slimer - a green, full torso vaporous ghost who was not only Egon's guinea pig for his experiments, but also a friend of the team - is seen floating down the street with a couple of boxes of donuts in his hand eating two or three out of each box at a time. The gluttonous little ghost was almost to the firehouse main doors when he spotted something in the alley between the firehouse and the building next door. There was a girl climbing out of the living quarters shower area window and she was going down the fire escape.

Slimer never saw her before. She was tall with brown hair in a ponytail wearing a white blouse and green capris. Slimer was almost enamored with her. He dropped his boxes of donuts and stared at her as she climbed down the ladder. It was at that moment he realized he was about to be seen. He panicked and flew upward out of her sight as she turned to where the little ghost was.

Lita turned after getting to ground level. She thought she heard a noise. She looked to the end of the alley and found boxes of donuts covered in a thin layer of green sticky ooze. She also smelled something that was none too pleasant, "Man, this _is _a dirty city. Perfectly good donuts on the ground, too; poor Serena would be upset at that. This place is too much." She ran down N. Moore, then turned on Varick heading north. Slimer hovered down from the 3rd floor and rounded the corner to watch the girl running up the road. He put the back of his hand to his forehead and wiped the slimy sweat from his brow while he watched the girl run away from him.

The black pickup rolled over another pile of building debris as the occupants bounced back and forth. "Goddamnit!" Dan was getting annoyed with the speed they were traveling as they traversed the landscape, "This fucking thing is gonna be halfway to Madison Square by the time we get there!"

"Then push it!" Eduardo was getting just as annoyed because he knew _why_ they were going slow, "Stop trying to avoid scratches and just get over there!" "Get fucking serious!" Dan shouted, "I already need to rebuild the blower on this thing, lets not add to the fucking list! Last thing I need is to knock the oil pan and blow the bottom end out."

"People are still in the area, you know," Eduardo was trying hard to appeal to Dan sense of morality to get there faster. He knew Dan treated his truck like his own child, but he saw the situation as more important if this thing went so far as to destroy a police precinct. He knew he was going to hear of it from his brother when he gets home tonight.

"I know!" Dan growled, "I know! I'm doing my best without destroying the truck because we might need to get outta here in a hurry."

The Ecto-1 was stuck in another traffic jam in the Bowery as people and police were all over the area. The chaos was _everywhere_ the Ghostbusters went trying to get to the scene of the disturbance. Roland shook his head as he looked around him, "I have _never _seen traffic this bad before. I wonder how big this thing is." Kylie was looking in one of her books she had with her as she tried to look up what the potential problem was, "From the description Janine got over the phone, it sounds like we're dealing with a Draugr."

"Draugr?" Garrett hung an arm over the back of the front seat to look over at the book Kylie was reading, "Isn't that a Rob Zombie song?"

"Draugr! Not, 'Dragula!' It's is an undead creature from Norse mythology! Look," She turned the book toward Garrett and Roland to show an illustration of the beast as she explained, "They were once greedy people who obtained great wealth by dishonest means and were cursed to being an undead, guarding their treasure and being a constant threat to the living."

"So what?" Garrett scoffed, "It's a zombie. We blow it apart and call it a day."

"It's not that easy, Garrett," the goth replied as she closed the book.

"She's right," Roland agreed, "The Proton Packs weren't designed to take out corporeal beings like these. The beams are destructive, sure, but when you combine PKE and ectoplasm with physical objects like a dead body it's physical resistance to the streams increases."

"So what you're saying is we'd be tickling the big ugly?"

"We still have Dan's Proton Canister Detonators."

Hearing that suggestion Kylie asked rhetorically, "Why is it everything Dan builds explodes?"

"Alright, look," Roland's patience was wearing thin at this point, "will you guys lay off Dan? I really don't like it when you talk behind his back like this."

"What are ya talkin' about, Rolo?" Garrett said, "You know very well I say it to his face, too."

"That's what I mean. You guys need to respect the chain of command. Egon made him the leader for a reason."

Kylie contested that point, "Leader? You will always be 10 times the leader that pyromaniac is and will _ever_ be!"

"It doesn't matter who's in charge," the man behind the wheel stated, "the point is he has knowledge and experience we don't have. Besides, I get along with him fine and admire the way he improvises."

"Yeah," Garrett inserted, words dripping with sarcasm. He counted on his fingers as he started a list, "he can improvise explosions, 30 different uses for gasoline…"

"The only reason you two get along is because you're both technophiles. On the overall you two are _not _the same."

"You make it sound like that's a bad thing."

"And frankly I don't see him being anything other than violent and uncaring."

"Okay, that does it!" Roland stopped the Cadillac and looked at both of them, "It's one thing that you don't like the guy or his tactics, but it's quite another to call him uncaring! True he has a temper, but he uses it against the problem. As for uncaring, even _you_ can't totally believe that, Kylie. Remember when Pagen was sick and you were away at your friend, Jack's? He paid out of pocket to take him to the vet. He didn't want you upset about it by the time you came back." Kylie averted her eyes. She knew what he was referring to, and a look of guilt did flash across her face.

"Look," Garrett again interjected, "just because he did something for someone's cat doesn't change the fact he's a danger to himself and everyone around him. That time he blew up my brand new Playstation 2 with that damn pistol of his still pisses me off to this day."

"He paid you back for that!"

"Yeah, but it still pisses me off."

"That's it! No more about it!" Roland put the car in gear as he laid out his terms, "I don't care if he sneezes in a fashion that offends your grandmother, I don't want to hear another word." It became awkward. This was more or less the first time anyone defended Dan, and it being Roland of all people. Garrett sat back into his seat, "Pfft, whatever." The wheelchaired man looked out the window and saw a familiar figure running through the traffic in the Bowery, "Wait, Dan's girlfriend?"

"I said not another word about it," Roland looked in the back seat at his fellow Ghostbuster, "and don't you dare start bringing her into it." Garrett watched out the window as the woman hailed a cab and stepped into it.

Lita got into the cab and talked to the driver, "What's the fastest way to Chelsea?" The cab driver looked behind him and gave the woman a strange look, "Have you not been hearing the news? People are being evacuated from there! What you wanna go there for?"

"Look, I'll make it worth your while if you get me as close to it as fast as possible. $50 plus the meter?" The cab driver's brow fluttered at the mention of $50. "Oh, hell, all the cops are busy right now anyway," the cabbie put the hack into gear after raising the flag on his meter, "Your chariot awaits, my dear!" The car squealed tires as it took off splitting lanes and going around the gridlock in the most unsafe way possible without killing someone.

Lita attempted to lock her seatbelt down as the car bounced all over the sidewalk. "Okay, Dan's driving was insane, but this is beyond worse!" The cab rolled on forward, it's passenger knowing not what laid before her, but determined nevertheless to stop the creature on her own. It may prove to be a terrible mistake.


	6. Reemergence

Chapter 6: Reemergence

It took time, but Lucky Black finally made it a block and a half away from the creature's location. The creature's PKE reading had been stationary since Dan and Eduardo rolled through the police barrier at the southern end of Greenwich Village. "Is it still there?" Dan asked, putting his foot on the clutch and letting the truck coast to a slow stop. "Yeah," the Latino Ghostbuster replied, his nose to the meter, "According to this, he's right around the corner."

Dan was confused by this, him taking the meter from Eduardo to look himself, "I don't get it. Why is it just sitting there?" "Maybe he's taking a break?" "Whatever he's doing," Dan shifted the truck into first and slowly let out the clutch, "we're gonna have to interrupt him. I hope this thing isn't playing with himself."

Maneuvering around broken cars, destroyed buildings, light poles and such, Lucky Black rounded a couple of corners before seeing something that was abnormal for the scenery already seen. In the middle of the street was a pile of dead pig and cow carcasses. Among the pile of rotting animal bodies was a large, gray, overbuilt human corpse. It stood almost 25 feet tall. Through the truck's ventilation system the smell emanating from the creature was absolutely abhorrent. Eduardo got a whiff of the smell and started coughing hard, "Oh, man! That thing smells like Fulton's Fish Mart on a hot day!" He pulled the front of his shirt up and went to cover his nose from the offensive odor.

Dan was less animated in his response, "It smells like if the Sanitary and Ship canal and Paris Hilton's snatch had a fuckchild." Eduardo looked at the man beside him, his polo still over his nose, "Man, that's too far." "This coming from the man with his shirt on his face." They turned back to the creature, it picking up a pig carcass and started to devour it raw. "Didn't that cop say that thing went through the meatpacking district?" Eduardo asked, his voice slightly muffled.

"Yeah. Looks like our boy here was hungry," Dan eyed the creature up as it ate the pig like a chicken leg, "let's figure out a way to spoil his lunch." Dan opened his door, the latch giving a hearty clunk as he opened the door and stepped out. A hot wave of odor came into the cab causing him to immediately cover his mouth and nose with his hand, "Jesus fucking _Christ!_" Eduardo followed him out as he too assessed the same, "Let's ruin his lunch quick before I lose mine!" Dan ordered Eduardo to hand over his Proton Pack which prompted him to go to the back and grab his. When he opened the tonneau cover, there was a harsh call to reality before him, "Dan, my pack's missing!"

Dan looked back behind him, "Whaddya mean it's missing?"

"I left it in the Ecto-1!"

"Oh, fuck me!" Dan started hitting himself in the head, "Stupid, stupid, stupid!"

"Hey man, it's not _my_ fault!"

"You're right; it's mine! I should have remembered that!" Dan drew his thrower as Eduardo grabbed a spare Ectoplasmic Destabilizer pistol and a different meter from the back. Eduardo looked at the readings and called it out, "Man, this isn't good!" He handed the meter to his partner and watched as Dan's eyes almost shot out of his head, "Oh, _God!"_ He handed the meter back and reached into the truck to grab the radio mic, "Ecto-1, this is Shannon. Are you in route? Over."

The radio crackled as the signal was breaking up, Roland's voice piped in with static, "_Copy, Shannon. You're bre...ng up, you might nee...oost signal. Over."_ "What's your ETA? Over." "_Yo...can't und…" _after that the radio went out. Dan attempted to respond, "Ecto-1? Ecto-1, come in!" There was static. Even Eduardo was waiting for a response, but nothing came. Dan tried one more time, "Roland, we have a PKE accumulation of 1272. We need you here now! Please respond!" Dan threw the mic into the cab of the truck with force, "**FUCK!"**

The beast heard the Ghostbuster curse. It turned around and looked at the two men and the black vehicle behind him, dropping the pig husk and wiping the blood and saliva from its face. It had a dirty tangled beard that reached mid pectoral. The creature's face was sunken and rotted; its body skeletal with rotted skin stretching over its bones. It was wearing armor and behind it was an old double-sided battleaxe.

"Alright, Garment District," the cab driver stopped at the far north eastern corner of Chelsea where the Garment District met it, "That's as close as I can get ya. That's $10.75 with the, 'tip'." Lita handed over $11 and proceeded to open the door, saying quickly as she did, "Actually-I-don't-have-the-fifty-BYE!" she got out of the cab and ran in the general direction of the Ghostbusters' disturbance call. The cab driver started swearing as he saw her run into the alley. He stepped out and started running after her, "Hey, look lady, I just risked my ass for you! You better..." he had just rounded the alley when he heard her call out, "Jupiter Star Power!"

Lita was enveloped in a bright greenish-white light as her transformation took place. Electricity crackled around her as she lost the white blouse and green capris and was now wearing a white bodysuit with green sailor collar and matching pleated skirt, a pink bow forming on the back end of the suit and on her chest, and a tiara had appeared on her head. Lita had now transformed into Sailor Jupiter, Guardian of the Moon Princess. When the light died down, the cabbie uncovered his eyes and saw that the girl had changed before him. He stood there as the woman ran off in the direction of her goal leaving the bewildered cab driver by himself. He blinked a couple of times, "Never mind, I didn't need that 50 that badly," he turned to his cab, stepped in, and drove off.

The creature started dragging the axe behind it as it approached the two of them. Dan looked at his particle thrower then looked up. Eduardo looked to his leader and asked, "It's coming this way, _hombre_! What do we do?"

Dan had seen a great deal in his life. He traveled into the past and future. He's met and fought a former angel. He witnessed rapidly evolving alien life. He was once even thrown into another plane of existence for a brief time. The man stood hard as he gripped his thrower tighter. He stood tall with confidence and looked at the creature before him…

Then the creature spoke in a Norwegan accent, "_Give me your life!"_

Dan shook his head, "Nuh-uh."

He put himself back into the truck. Eduardo did a double take at what Dan just did and followed suit soon after. The creature picked up speed and started swinging it's axe around as Eduardo jumped into the passenger seat allowing Dan to back the truck up fast.

Dan - not looking where he was going - backed Lucky Black blindly colliding into a light pole behind it. Dan shook his head as he saw the beast lift it's axe up and take a downward slash at the truck causing the axe to hit the bed of the truck. The creature wound up for another swing when Dan threw it into 1st and laid patch as the truck rolled between the monster's legs, the sides of the truck being scratched and gouged as it smoked its tires through the monster's armor. The truck broke free, hit a pile of gravel in the road, and fishtailed the passenger side into the side of a building. Dan didn't stop. He again popped the clutch and went back to the way they came. At this point the creature spoke again, "_You will not escape me!"_

The truck sailed around a corner, Dan dirt-drifting the vehicle hard. Once the truck straightened out the truck's owner grabbed the radio mic and called out, "Ecto-1! Ecto-1, please respond, we have an emergency!"

"Dan!" Eduardo yelled, "Watch the road!" Too late. The truck hit a pothole and started to lose traction on the debris on the road. The truck yawed sideways as the driver side of the vehicle collided with another pile of road debris. Dan's window shattered on impact. The mic for the radio went flying out of the man's hand and outside the broken window, the mic now dangling from it's cord. Steaming greenish-yellow liquid was pouring out of the bottom of the engine bay. The truck stalled and died. Dan and Eduardo just had a massive accident.

Running into the area, Sailor Jupiter found the pile of dead animal carcasses in the middle of the road and as she approached smelled something rather vile. She stopped as she covered her mouth and nose with her long gloved hands and observed the destruction. The terrain was very uneven after a few feet into the street, "Whoa! I'd hate to have to clean this mess up. What is that _smell?_" From beyond the mound of animal corpses, Jupiter saw something far taller emerge from behind a building and onto the street she stood. It's skin was gray and flaking. She approached the creature and stood before it, "Hold it right there, buddy!"

The creature looked at the woman before it, repeating only what it said before, "_Give me your life!"_

"Didn't anyone ever tell you it's wrong to destroy others property?" Jupiter put herself into a fight-ready stance and announced, "I am Sailor Jupiter, fighter of love and peace. In the name of Jupiter…"

BOOM! The creature threw its battleaxe at the woman. The axe augered itself into the asphalt where Jupiter stood. She jumped out of the way, narrowly missing the blade by mere inches. She landed feet on the ground skidding backwards in a crouch. She stood up; a look of surprise on her face. Her heart was racing. It had been a while since she fought as a Sailor Scout, the power had been collecting dust in the meantime. She looked to the beast that was still approaching her, "_Give me your life!" _"I have to say, you're eager to fight!" The creature growled as it walked closer to her. She went back into a ready fighting stance, "I'll throw you an easy one!"

Clouds gathered above her as an antenna extended from her tiara, lightning collecting at the top of it. She crossed her arms before her face, her palms facing inward with her forefinger and pinky sticking up. Jupiter started yelling out, **"Supreme..."** she brought her legs up to her body as the lightning started to form in a circle around her. The lightning then travels towards her face, and collects together forming a ball of electrical energy. Jupiter quickly throws her arms and legs out, and the lightning explodes towards the creature, **"Thunder!"**

The lightning ball flew out and collided with the monster, it giving a horrible howl as it arched its back in pain. The beast fell down to its one knee and placed its opposite hand onto the pavement, smoke emanating from its body. Jupiter looked at the creature, stunned at what just happened, "That's it? That all you have?" A smirk came across her face, "And here I worried…" before she could complete her thought, she heard a low growl coming from the beast. It lifted its head and looked at the woman with the lightning powers.

The smirk had long left her face, "Oh, son-of-a…"

The back of the creatures hand flew at her and hit her square in the chest. She flew into the air and crashed into an apartment window, her hitting someone's coffee table shattering its glass, and finally hitting the floor. The glass shards cut her up in several places and she began to bleed out, her gasping for air for it was knocked out of her. She turned over in an attempt to get up as the creature smashed the wall inward and grabbed her. The Sailor Scout tried to get to her feet, but she wasn't fast enough.

Dan came to as he looked around, "Ugh, that hurt." Eduardo groaned as he also came to, "What happened? My head hurts like I just went to a Static X concert." "Last thing I remember was hitting a pothole," Dan cleared his eyes by blinking a few times, then looked around and saw the truck, "OH MY GOD! Lucky! Aw, poor Lucky!" The damage was extensive; bed and tonneau cover had massive gashes in them; both driver and passenger side doors had craters in the sheet metal; fender and sides were crumpled; the bumper and tailgate were folded in; driver window broken; front windshield had a large crack in it; and engine also had steam shooting from under the hood.

Eduardo looked at him with disgusted surprise, "What?" he shook his head and raised his voice, "Oh sure, because your goddamn truck is more important! We need to set your priorities straight, man!"

The creature had Sailor Jupiter in its hand. It growled as it looked at the young woman, "_How dare you!"_ Jupiter was becoming rather grossed out from the fact this rotting… _thing…_ was touching her let alone breathing on her, "My god, have you ever heard of _Tic Tacs_?" The creature wound up to throw Jupiter across the street…

Dan was annoyed at that, "Oh, blow it out your ass, Rivera!" he suddenly arched his back in pain and screamed, all his muscles tensing, but then he relaxed. He put both his hands on his chest and felt around, him breathing heavily as he did so. Eduardo looked to him, nearly jumping out of his skin from the blood curdling scream, "What the hell, man? Why you screaming?"

"I donno," the driver replied, "I had this sudden spike of pain like I was thrown against a wall."

Sailor Jupiter was face down on the ground next to a building. Just above her was a wall that had been caved in a diameter approximately the size of her body. She went to roll on her side, but felt a very sharp pain where her ribs were. The creature came forward and grabbed her again. She was still reeling from the wall impact when the creature spoke, "_I do not like you. I will destroy you."_ With that the beast started squeezing the Sailor Scout in its hand as her eyes shot open and started screaming in pain. This thing was ridiculously strong; it was even too strong for her.

"Whaddya mean thrown against a wall?" Eduardo asked, "You mean when we crashed into this pile of crap here?"

"No, I mean right as I…" Dan abruptly started screaming in agony as he hunched over in his seat and brought his arms to his chest.

Jupiter kicked her feet wildly in the air as tried to pull free of the creature. It didn't work. The beast started squeezing her _harder_…

Dan flipped around in his seat moving his legs up and down. His arm jutted out and hit the horn on the steering wheel a few times.

Jupiter closed her eyes. This thing was squeezing her so hard her face was starting to turn red. She was having trouble trying to breathe.

"Dan! Dan, what's the matter?" Eduardo yelled over Dan's screaming. Dan was hunched over, grunting as his face contorted and turned red…

He suddenly stopped screaming, took his arms away from his chest, and sat up normally. His eyes were wide open like something had just occurred to him, "Eduardo, get out of the truck!" Eduardo shook his head, completely confused about the sudden 180 his partner and leader just performed, "Uh…" "I said out of the truck," Dan turned his head to the man beside him, an almost dark air surrounding him. He finished his sentence with a growl, gritting his teeth as he did so, "**Now!"**

Eduardo was terrified. He undid his seatbelt and stumbled out of the truck quickly. Dan started the truck and started squealing the tires. The truck wasn't going anywhere; it was stuck on the rebar in the pile of debris. Eduardo was about to say something when the truck started to lurch forward until finally - after a creak and crunch of metal - the truck broke free and tore off into the direction the monster was. Eduardo looked over and saw the object making all the noise; it was the driver side door being ripped off. All that was left was the door with the Ghostbusters logo on it with red and white hazard tape running across the center of the door, "What the hell came over _him_?"

Dan was drifting the vehicle through the damaged streets with only one thing on his mind, "_I'm comin', Lita! Just hang on!"_


	7. Incognito

Chapter 7: Incognito

Sailor Jupiter was on the verge of blackout. Her arms and legs were numb; she couldn't feel much below her waist as the creature kept applying pressure to her body, its massive rotten hand completely enveloping her lower torso. She was bleeding from various cuts she sustained from glass and impacts only made worse by the pressure being applied to her body. She only managed to whisper out one phrase, "_Dan… Help…"_

The black Chevy S-10 rounded the corner, the vehicle's back end swinging out parallel to the street stopping with the front end of the vehicle pointing at the monstrosity. The red and white lights on the top of the truck were flashing; the engine growling loud as the driver revved it up. Behind the wheel, Dan snarled at the beast holding the young guardian in its hand, gripping the steering wheel intensely with raw hatred burning in his green eyes. The beast turned to the noise, it loosening its grip allowing Sailor Jupiter to breathe, "_Him again?" _the creature looked to the woman in its hand, "_Who is that retch?"_

Sailor Jupiter looked the beast weakly in the eye, venom in her voice, "My _boyfriend_."

Dan shifted the truck back into first, "Let go of Lita you undead **MOTHERFUCKER!**" Dan dropped the gas pedal to the floor and popped the clutch. The tires wailed and the engine hit the rev limiter as copious amounts of smoke started pouring from under the hood of the truck. The truck found traction and took off like a shot, Dan changing gears as the truck reached its highest RPM, and again, and again. The truck reached an incredible amount of speed as it approached the monster. There was a pile of road debris between him and the beast. In a split second, Dan knew it would work. The truck ran over the top of the debris pile, it acting like a makeshift ramp.

The next few seconds felt like an eternity. The truck was airborne sailing toward the monster holding the Sailor Scout. The beast began turning to try and move out of the way of the incoming vehicle, but unfortunate for the beast it only exposed its chest. Sailor Jupiter saw the vehicle's engine catch on fire; the engine block was glowing red hot with flames shooting out of the seal of the oil pan. Looking into the cab she saw Dan screaming in sheer rage and bracing for impact as the vehicle came closer.

Realtime resumed as the pickup's front end hit the creature in the chest. The creature, Sailor Jupiter, and the Ghostbusters' first response pickup truck all flew in the same direction. When the creature slammed into the ground, Sailor Jupiter went tumbling out of its hand and flew back an additional 40 feet until she hit the stairs of a townhouse. The truck flipped end over end off the beasts chest until it flipped to its side and rolled several feet away, stopping on its roof.

It took a few moments before Jupiter looked up and looked for Dan's truck. She saw the beast down, then looked over to see the truck's oil pan spitting oil which caught fire on the still glowing engine, black plumes of smoke floating into the late-day New York sky. She didn't see much in the way of signs of life. She went to stand up to go to the truck, but collapsed in pain as her arm shot a sensation thereof. Holding her injured arm close and trying to stand with her good arm, she collapsed again from a shooting pain in her leg. _Did I break my arm and leg?_ she asked herself internally. The creature opened it's blackened eyes and sat up, almost unaffected from the vehicle strike. It looked toward the burning vehicle, "_Foolish man."_

There was a mechanical whirling that emanated from the truck's passenger side which faced the beast and Sailor Jupiter. The passenger door of the truck exploded as a beam of yellow energy followed behind it. Dan crawled out of the passenger side of the truck and started firing his Proton Pack at the creature before him. The beam struck the outer husk of the monster and started blowing a great deal of flesh off it, it howling again in pain as the stream of protons ripped it apart. Dan kept firing as he came to his feet; he was bleeding from the top of his head and from his lips. He kept the beam steady as he blew more flesh off the monster before him, "You fuck with her, you fuck with _me_, **asshole**!"

The beast grabbed a large piece of asphalt from the street and threw it in the Ghostbuster's direction. Dan killed the beam and dove to the side, the rock bouncing off the ground and into the now burning truck behind him. He landed hard on his side to the point he groaned in agony, giving the beast enough time to stand. Before Dan could stand himself the creature grabbed the Ghostbuster by his particle accelerator and held him up, "_You oppose me? You believe yourself the hero?"_

Dan twisted the Proton Canister on his thrower the other direction reversing its polarity, unbuckled his pack's straps, then stumbled behind another damaged car once he hit the ground. The pack started to spark in the creatures hand causing the beast to throw the device into the air. The pack detonated into a large ball of plasma, the shockwave blowing out the windows of cars and buildings in the area. Dan's flight-capable Proton Pack had met its end. Dan only had one thing left; he ran back to the burning truck and picked through the downed equipment that piled out of the vehicle's bed. He found one last Ectoplasmic Destabilizer pistol. Checking the charge level, the pistol was almost dead. There wasn't a point. Dan dropped the pistol as the creature approached.

Sailor Jupiter witnessed Dan's truck get destroyed, the flight pack being destroyed, and Dan dropping his pistol. He had no more weapons. Everything that saved her and all of Tokyo was destroyed in a matter of minutes. No other Ghostbusters were on scene. She couldn't move herself to help him. Worse yet, she was beginning to cough up blood; the creature most likely broke one of her ribs and it punctured her lung. This creature was so strong it managed to do massive bodily harm to her in her transformed state. She was afraid of what was about to happen, "Dan, no!"

"_You have no more tricks, hero. Resign to your fate."_ Dan turned to the creature, his jumpsuit tattered, blood trickling down his face. There was one thing about Dan's face that perplexed it; the Ghostbuster was… smiling? "That's where you're wrong, buddy. Are you familiar with magnets?" Dan turned his head to the side and threw his hand out. The creature stopped and stood in confusion as Dan brought his hand back to pointing it toward it, "_What do you hope to accom…"_ CRASH! A random car flew through the air and slammed into the creature, it falling over and collapsing onto the ground again. Sailor Jupiter performed a hard blink as she saw that happen, "What the hell…?"

The creature just got back up and mocked him, "_Is that the best you have, hero?" _Dan reached his hand out toward another car, then clenched his hand into a fist. As he did the car crumpled into a ball of metal. Using his other hand, he did the same to _another _car. Still clenching his fists, Dan started throwing punches into the air, the balls of metal following his fists' movements. The balls of metal struck the beast into the face and the body knocking it around. Dan was aggressively throwing punches at the beast that chunks of flesh ripped off the creature's body. More and more of the beasts skeleton was being exposed with each strike. The beast swatted at the metal chunks as they kept striking it over and over again.

Eduardo was running through the damaged streets of Chelsea when he heard a familiar sound, "The Ecto-1! They got through!" Sure enough, what approached was a New York Streets and Sanitation truck with one of their snow plows attached to the front of it knocking the smaller debris piles out of the way followed by the Ecto-1, sirens blazing along with FDNY fire trucks. He stood out of the way and waved his hands into the air, "Hey! Roland! Kylie!" The Cadillac pulled to the side allowing the other vehicles past as Eduardo came up to the driver side door. Roland was worried that he only saw one of the SERVe Ghostbusters, "Eduardo, where's Dan?"

"The man went _loco_!" he got into the back seat as he explained, Roland putting the car back into drive, "He started screaming like he was in pain, and when he stopped he growled at me to get out of the truck. After that, he literally _tore the truck door off_ and went back toward the nasty."

"He tore his truck door _off_?" Roland asked confused.

"That doesn't sound like him," Kylie agreed, being just as confused, "he practically washes that truck in baby shampoo; what would compel him to do that?"

"It's finally happening, people," Garrett decided to add his two cents, "The man who destroys a great deal couldn't destroy _enough_ to satisfy; he's starting to destroy himself and all he held dear."

"Garrett, you're an idiot!" Eduardo was losing his cool, "Someone's in danger over there!" He stopped after he heard what he just said, "Wait, how the _hell_ do I know that?"

"Yeah, it's him," the wheelchair-bound man said beside him, "Why aren't you there helping him?"

"I left my pack back here!" The Latino pointed to the pack rack and sure enough there were 4 full size Proton Packs on the rack instead of the normal 3 - Roland's, Garrett's, the usual spare, and Eduardo's, "Dan told me to put it here because the truck was acting stupid before this call!"

Kylie broke up the conversation, "Eduardo, how far away is he?"

"We drove a far ways away, and I started running in this direction after he booted me. I think 5 blocks."

Sailor Jupiter had crawled onto the stairs of the townhouse as she watched what was happening. The creature ran back to it's battleaxe and started storming toward the Ghostbuster with telekinetic power. The beast started swinging its axe around again when Dan dropped the steel balls and concentrated his energy on the manholes in the neighborhood. They all lifted up and turned to their edges. Concentrating his thoughts on each manhole cover he clenched his hands causing the heavy iron disks to accelerate toward the charging beast. The manholes collided with the monster creating multiple audible cracking noises as bones broke. One of the monster's arms was severed off by an impacting manhole cover.

The Sailor Scout leaned against the baluster of the townhouse steps as she felt her lungs filling with her own blood, becoming weaker as she watched Dan fight with the monster in the most impossible way. She coughed hard spitting blood up onto her white gloves and onto her lips. She was drowning to death. _Dan,_ she cried out mentally again, _Help._

Dan looked over after using the manholes to slow the creature down and found Sailor Jupiter starting to have blood roll out of her mouth at an alarming rate, "Shit!" He looked back to the creature, "Look, ugly, we don't have time for this!" That was when he heard it; the low moaning of the Ecto-1's siren. He looked behind him where the sound was coming from. It was extremely faint, but it was slowly getting louder, "Oh, we _really_ don't have time for this!"

The creature stood up again, irritating Dan to his full extent, "Aw, goddamnit! Why won't you stay. The _fuck_. **DOWN**!?" Dan lifted his arms and from under the ground a large telephone trunk surfaced. The creature went to wind up it's axe again when the cable trunk wrapped around the beasts neck and was lifted into the air. Dan raised his arms as high as he could, then quickly threw them toward the ground. The beast crashed into the street and into the underground sewer tunnel. Dan released the cable and looked for something else to pummel the beast with. The creature, still missing an arm, went to stand again, using its axe as a crutch to stand. That was when the sunlight above it started to get blotted out when something came into its path…

The remains of Lucky Black.

Dan's truck slammed with force into the hulking monster, it's engine still burning from the oil striking the engine block. The vehicle lifted up and smashed into the creature again, and again, and _again_ with more veracity each strike. The vehicle's gas tank split open on one of the impacts making contact with the flames of the engine causing a much bigger fire, enveloping the monster in the hole into flames itself. Dan kept striking the beast with the destroyed Ectomobile until he felt it was enough. He tossed the truck to the side. Again stretching out his hand, Dan reached for an object from a distance. One of the spare Ghost Traps that spilled out of the truck earlier levitated and flew into Dan's hand, the trap's hand trigger dropping into the other.

The battered Ghostbuster walked to the hole and saw the beast burnt, missing 3 limbs now, and looking up with it's blackened eyes. Half of its face was missing, but a look of anger was still identifiable on its face. "Yeah," the Ghostbuster said to the creature, anger clearly still in his voice, "go ahead and say it, douchebag. It ain't the first time I heard it."

"_I am not the last,"_ the beast spat out, "_My brothers will come to avenge me!"_ Dan rolled his eyes as he adjusted the Ghost Trap's setting, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. You're still the first!" Dan threw the trap directly on top of the beast. The beast had one last thing to say, "_It will take more than meer weapons to stop the rest of us, hero. My kin already know what you've done here today; they will not allow this victory again."_

"I guess I'll have to get more creative next time," Dan primed the trap, "_Adios_, bitch!" he hit the trigger activating the trap. The proton vortex started pulling the creature's essence in as more and more of the beast started turning into dust. Once the trap closed, the trap itself sat upon the dusty remains of the beast. Dan hefted the trap out of the hole and looked at the smoking device, "Enjoy your stay at the Ghostbusters' luxurious Ecto Containment system." With that he dropped the trap to the ground. Dan gripped his chest like he was having a hard time breathing.

That was when it occurred to him, "Oh, no! Lita!" Dan turned to the townhouse and ran toward the downed Sailor Scout. Blood was covering the front of her suit, her hands… She was covered in her own blood, a pool of it below her on the stairs. Dan didn't see her eyes open. She was wheezing badly as Dan placed his hand behind her head, "Lita! Lita, honey, wake up! Come on!" She opened her eyes weakly, her coughing more blood up as she stirred, "Dan?" Dan was having severe deja vu of Starlight Tower after Jedite struck her with an energy bolt. The Ghostbuster heard the sirens of approaching fire trucks and the Ecto-1 as he lifted her into his arms. He put a hand to her cheek, tears in his eyes, "Jesus, Lita," he tried to smile despite the panic he was feeling, "We don't get to see each other for an hour, and you go pull this boneheaded stunt?"

"Dan," she said again weakly, "Your truck…" she was upset about what he did to his second truck, her also putting her blood-soaked hand on his cheek, leaving a mark of blood there. Her hand was cold against his cheek. Dan grabbed her hand, him noticing that she was starting to turn blue, "It's a hunk of metal. _You _are more precious then some fucking vehicle!" Tears formed in her eyes as she knew what he sacrificed. She suddenly realized what she had done, now knowing even worse, what he did may have been in vain, "Dan, I'm sorry, I'm…" she coughed again, more blood coming from her lips, "I'm not gonna make it."

"Don't say that!" Dan was having a hard flashback of that night on top of the tower, "Don't say that! The fire department's coming; they're being led by the Ecto-1! We can get you to a hospital, you just have to stay _with me_!" Sailor Jupiter's eyes rolled into the back of her head as her body went limp. She was gone.

"Lita?" Dan started to breathe erratically as a feeling a panic started to overtake him like before, "Lita?!" He couldn't feel her pulse; her body was very cold. At first he was going to cry in manic trama, but almost in the same moment, something about his face changed. He started to look angry. He grinded his teeth together as he stated, almost without thinking, "No, I'm not letting you go _again_, **goddamnit!**" He gripped the Sailor Scout by the hand harder, pressed her body against his, and concentrated. A light started to form between them as Dan started yelling out as the light increased in intensity.


	8. Opportunity

Chapter 8: Opportunity

The Ecto-1 and the line of fire trucks were two blocks away. The plow truck was having a hard time moving the very large pile of building rubble that blocked the road. The firefighters engaged one of their water lines to soak the pile in hopes it would soften the debris. Inside the Ectomobile everyone waited for the pile to be moved allowing the vehicles into the area. Eduardo was extremely unnerved about what was going on, more so than the others, "Man, can't they move any faster?!"

Garrett was looking at the latino beside him and was actually annoyed by the way he was acting, "Geez, Eddie, I've never seen you so ants-in-the-pants ready to go fight something."

"Don't! Something bad is happening over there, I can _feel_ it!"

"Since when did you care? You're the one always stating when someone is missing, 'Maybe he's dead.'" Garrett's words were suddenly overshadowed by their being a very large, very bright flash of light coming from the direction they needed to go. The beam of light shot into the air in a silent flash. The firefighters stopped their hoses and looked to the pillar of light in the sky. Everyone exited the Ecto-1 and looked. The light was calm and silent as it reached toward the clouds. Kylie took out her PKE meter and took a reading, Garrett rolling out of the back of the car and up next to her, "Sister Mary Elephant! What the hell is that?!"

"I donno!" the goth responded, "It has no reading!"

"No reading?" Roland asked as he pulled out his meter, "That can't be!"

Before anyone else began to notice, Eduardo grabbed his Proton Pack and started running toward the light. Garrett was the first to notice, "Eddie? Eddie! What are you doing! Get back here! Eduardo!" Too late, the man started barreling away from the Ecto-1 and toward the bright light in the sky. He drew his thrower and climbed over the rubble in his way. Garrett shook his head, "Oh, god. Shannon's insanity is spreading!"

The light began to die down between the two as whatever Dan did had taken its course. Dan pulled Sailor Jupiter away from him as he looked at her. All of the blood from her mouth and cuts were gone; her cuts themselves were gone. She opened her eyes and looked to Dan and saw that his blood trail from his head and his bleeding lip was healed. She no longer had a pool of blood below her or over her Sailor suit. She moved her injured arm to find that it wasn't so any longer. She stood up and walked a short distance, her leg no longer hurting as she walked, "I don't understand…"

"I remembered; I have incognito powers." Sailor Jupiter looked to the Ghostbuster who stood with strain and walked closer to her slowly, "I can control electromagnetism while I'm in my civilian form." "Then what did you just do?"

"That's another of my powers," Dan grabbed the Sailor Soldier by her shoulders, "I can heal you, and only you. Each Solar Knight can do it with their princess, but it comes at a cost."

She looked to Dan and saw the very cost; he looked very weak, "You have to use some of your own life force."

"All of the Solar Knights have sworn to protect their respective princesses lives; if they have to use all of their energy and sacrifice themselves, it will be done. Lita," he drew her into an embrace, her returning it in kind, "You can't go running off like this and try fighting monsters as a Sailor Scout. They're not interdimensional beings; these things are meaner and more maneuverable than us," he pulled away to look into her eyes, "Do not do this again! I may not be able to save you like this next time. Okay?"

Sailor Jupiter wasn't sure to be offended or worried, "You don't think I can fight whatever comes my way; is that what you think?"

Dan held her in an embrace again, harder than before, "Goddamnit, I can't **lose** you again!" A tremor rocked out from his voice. It finally dawned on her what he meant, "My heart can't take it." He placed his head on her shoulder and breathed heavily. She felt his tears through the bodysuit. He spoke again, more softly, "My heart… c-can't…" his grip loosened as he started to slip to the ground. "Dan!" she tried to hold him up, but he fell to his one knee. She bent over beside him as he tried to stay stable on his one knee. She put an arm around him, "I have to get you back to your headquarters!"

"Dan! Hey, _amigo_, where are ya?" Dan looked toward the sound of the voice, "Shit, it's Eduardo!" He turned back to the Sailor Scout, "The only one going back to the firehouse is you. Go back and explain to Egon what happened."

She protested, "I can't just leave you here!"

"If Eduardo sees you, there's gonna be a metric-shitload of questions, now go." Jupiter pivoted on her boot heel as she stood, looking back at the man on the ground as she backed away still wanting to help him. He looked back at her as he stood and leaned against a pile of debris, "Go!" She turned and she ran toward the first alley she saw.

Eduardo rounded the corner and looked around, "This is it! This is where we were!" he picked up his voice, "Dan! Where are ya, man?!" He looked around and saw Dan's truck, Lucky Black. The vehicle looked like it went through a rock crusher. The vehicle was still burning, "No way. That _pendejo _actually did it!" Not too far away, he saw a smoking Ghost Trap laying on the ground. He was about to head toward it when out of the corner of his eye, he saw a woman in a white bodysuit trimmed in green running away from the area. He shook his head as he witnessed her run away. He walked passed what looked like a detached corner of a building as he walked slowly in the direction she ran. "Okay," he started, "am I hallucinating?" "Maybe." Eduardo jumped and screamed at the response. He charged his thrower to point behind him...

It was Dan. He was leaning against the debris trying to hold himself up. Eduardo dropped the thrower and let out a sigh of relief, "Good god, man, you just scared 20 years off my life!" "Let's be honest, Eduardo," the engineer said as he weakly pushed off the building and walked in the direction of the approaching sirens, "you weren't gonna do anything with those 20 years." Eduardo watched the way the man walked toward the smoking Ghost Trap and pick it up slowly. Something was very off about what was going on, "Hey, what happened with tall, gray, and stinky?" Dan hefted the trap slightly, "Right here." "You got him _by yourself_?"

Dan stumbled over his feet as he kept walking, "Y-yeah. So what?"

"Dan?" Eduardo had a lot of concern in his voice, "Are you okay?"

"Fine," Dan said turning to face him, "Ready for another call." That was when Dan's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed falling backwards, the Ghost Trap hitting the ground with a hard metallic CLANK! "Dan!" Eduardo holstered the thrower and ran up to him. He knelt down and checked on his fallen partner, Ecto-1 rounding the corner with siren running as it approached.

Dan awoke with a start. He looked up and found a familiar ceiling over his head, "The hell?" He heard a shushing noise from outside his field of vision, "It's okay," Dan tilted his head to the side and saw Lita sitting by the window, her nothing but a silhouette against the moonlight. She scooted closer and placed a cold rag on his head as he leaned back, "I feel like I just came out of a massive caffeine crash. I feel terrible."

"You're gonna be okay, Dan," she said as she checked his face for temperature, her hand on his cheek, "When the others brought you back, I was afraid you… you know…" Dan nodded, "You were pretty banged up, Lita. It took a nasty chunk out of me."

"Had you waited a few minutes more, the energy exchange would have killed you." Both of them turned to the bunk room door and saw Egon standing there in the frame. He walked in and sat at another chair on the opposite side of the bed, "According to your electrolyte levels, you almost died of acute exhaustion."

"Egon, what did I tell you about fartin' around with my bodily fluids?"

"Believe me, it was an emergency. After the others radioed back and said what happened to you, Lita returned to the firehouse and explained what happened to you two before they got back. She had been keeping a vigil on you since," he took off his glasses and took out a cleaning cloth to clean them as he continued, "It would be a good idea if you two don't use a power like that in the new teams' presence."

Dan raised an eyebrow, "Particular reason?"

"That giant pillar of light you two put off would have overloaded the meters had I not hard-programmed your PKE signatures out of them when I built them." Dan looked to have understood that, but Lita was again confused, "Why would you do that?" "The reason he did is to cover the fact I put out PKE like Chernobyl puts out radiation. It would point all the meters at _me _exposing _my_ nasty little secret," Dan turned to her, "let alone your's and the other Sailor Scouts."

"Correct," the scientist placed his glasses back on his face, "You, Dan, Serena, Raye, Amy, Mina, Darien, and the cat guardians' signatures have been filtered from the meters to protect your identities in the off chance you would meet the new team. Doing what you did may have pointed out the omission in the equipment which could jeopardize your lives," Egon leaned in to warn them, "Use them if you have to, but know it will forever change how you two are seen by this team. My students are very bright."

"I can vouch; Eduardo and Garrett, not so much, but Kylie and Roland? **Don't** play them for idiots," Dan made sure to add weight to his words to express the severity of the situation, "Roland's most likely checking the meters over as we speak."

"Yes," Egon agreed, "He's been checking and rechecking meters for the last 2 days."

Dan's eyes went wide, "2 days?" he shook his head on the pillow, "How long was I out?"

Egon cleared his throat as he knew Dan wasn't going to like the answer, "It's currently Thursday night." Dan mouth hung open, "Dammit! The work schedule's all backed up now! And we're down a vehicle!" "Oh," Egon reached into his back pocket and pulled out folded up papers, "Your insurance agent came by and talked to Janine. She managed to negotiate the payout for the truck," Dan took the papers, turned on his bed's reading lamp, and looked at the claim slip. His eyes almost shot out of his head, "Egon, whatever you're paying that woman, it's not enough! Holy shit!"

Lita felt like she had really made a mess of things for Dan. He destroyed his truck; destroyed his experimental pack; now that she heard they were behind, and worse yet, the creature they fought might have others coming. She only saw one thing she could do…

"Egon? Can I ask you about something?"


	9. Dis-Orientation

Chapter 9: Dis-Orientation

Friday, June 21st 2002

Ghostbusters HQ

8:26 AM

Roland, Garrett, Kylie, and Eduardo were gathered in the garage area of the firehouse behind Ecto-1 waiting for Dan. Janine of course sat at her desk as always waiting like the rest of them wondering what was going on. "So?" Garrett began, "What ya think this big meeting is we have to sit in on? We already had to skip 6 jobs last night because Destucto-Boy got knocked cold, so it'd be nice to get a start on those."

"Say what you want about the man," Kylie added, "he was good at keeping a schedule."

Eduardo had in his hand a McDonald's bag. He had reached in and pulled out an Egg McMuffin as he spoke, "You guys keep bustin' the guys chops," Unbeknownst to Eduardo, Slimer had hovered down and started peeling the wrapper for the sandwich open as he talked, "He was in a friggan coma for the last two days; give him a break." Slimer yanked the sandwich out of the wrapper and flew upward shoving it into his mouth. Eduardo felt the tug and was too late seeing the sandwich disappear into Slimer's… whatever he called a stomach, "Ugh! _Slimeball_!"

"He had a break," Garrett scoffed, "he had one for two days, like you said."

"Draugr's are supposed to be powerful," Kylie scratched her head as she milled the idea over in her head aloud, "I still can't imagine Dan capturing a near-class 8 with just a pickup truck and no Proton Pack. I still wonder how he pulled _that_ one off."

Garrett blew a raspberry, "Luck?"

Roland finally entered the conversation, "I thought you didn't believe in luck?"

"That was before I met, 'Lucky Charms,' the one time, remember?" The firepole leading to the bunk room sent off a CLANG as everyone looked up and saw Dan descend from the room upstairs. Kylie looked at her watch, "Like I said, he keeps a schedule; 8:30 on the dot."

Dan's boots touched the ground and he dismounted the pole. Under his arm he had a clipboard which he pulled out and started the meeting, "Mornin' everyone. I assume you guys slept okay?" "We know _you_ did." Dan rolled his eyes at Garrett's comment and continued, "Anyway, Egon had told me what's been going on the last few days, and even he said it was like the old days where there were fifty-billion calls coming in an hour," he looked to his clipboard which had highlighter markings all over the page, "According to the city-wide valance report, activity has gone up substantially in the last week. It's a good thing you guys' classes are done with for the summer because we're gonna need as many hours outta ya we can squeeze."

"You're not suggesting overtime, are you?" Garrett was _not_ liking where this was going. Dan shook his head, "No. Unfortunately that's too much for even Egon to pay for. I have therefore suggested we split the team to make two shifts." Everyone erupted at once asking questions and arguing. Dan tried to talk over them, "Guys? Guys! GUYS!" The bickering continued until Janine stood from behind her desk and yelled at the top of her lungs, "_**SHUUUUT UUUUP!"**_ Everyone jumped at that, Dan included, "Uh…Thanks, Janine." The Secretary nodded her head and sat back down to her work on her computer. Clearing his throat he started again, "As I was saying, we're making two shifts. Day shift with consist of Roland, Kylie, and Garrett. Night shift will be me, Eduardo, and a new recruit."

Kylie was the first to say something, abet rather harshly, "Recruit?"

"Yes. We're gonna need a trap handler on this team. We already have someone ready to go," he called back up the pole, "Alright, you can come on down!" The pole shook as someone else slid down. This person was wearing a sage green suit with magenta trim. When they touched the ground, everyone was in shock; Lita was wearing a Ghostbuster uniform.

"Have you lost the plot entirely?" Garrett couldn't help but shoot his mouth off in abject anger, "What makes you think she can do this job?"

"Because she has a great deal of combat training."

"Really, they teach that in home economics?" Lita stepped up to say something, but Dan put up his hand in a halting motion, then raised only one finger indicating for him to have one minute. Lita backed off as Dan looked at Garrett, "Okay, I get it; you don't like me. As far as I'm concerned, you can burn me in effigy every night if it gets your jollies off. But if you so much as insult her again and I hear about it, I will find the tallest flight of stairs in Manhattan and I will **kick you down them!**"

Garrett was actually stunned. Dan never talked that way to him before. Whatever happened in Chelsea the other day changed the man's attitude. That, or he was trying to impress his girlfriend. Garrett decided on the latter. Of course.

"She's a 3rd degree black belt, so if anything she can do the quick dodging this job requires, let alone _kick your ass_. She is now a fellow Ghostbuster, you're gonna respect her as a member of the team. Everyone got that?" there was a silence. Dan took it as a hopping off point, "As of this moment, we might have to share the Ecto-1, but each team will have their own vehicle. Lita, you're gonna go with the day shift today and learn trap operations from Kylie," he looked to the team's occultist and trap operator, "Okay?" Kylie avoided eye contact with him, but she nodded, crossing her arms in annoyance.

Roland raised his hand, "Dan? Question." "What's up?" "Are you sure 3 Ghostbusters a shift is gonna be enough?" "I'm sure of it. This place started with 3 Ghostbusters, it can run on 3 Ghostbusters. Besides, if a 5-alarm emergency comes up, we have another shift ready to go and help. That's why we're doing separate vehicles."

Garrett took another jab, "And what are you gonna be doing in the meantime, movie star?"

Dan nearly twitched at that, "Me and Eduardo are gonna see about getting us that replacement vehicle. Started looking this morning on a site called, 'Craigslist', and I think I have a line on one already. Look, I see this huge problem about to hit us; I'm just trying to take initiative here. Get your list of assignments for the day; I'll see you guys at the end of the shift." With that everyone headed to their lockers and suited up for their shift, grumbling being heard slightly as they made their way there. Dan shook his head and turned to Lita, "You sure you wanna go ahead with this?"

"I'm sure," the woman before him had a look of confliction in her eyes, "I made such a huge mess coming here."

"Hey, these things happen," the lead Ghostbuster reassured her, "I sure as hell don't blame you for what the big ugly did the other day. You do, however, need to exercise more caution before rushing into something. Rushing can get someone hurt or killed in this job. Go on; Kylie has a spare trap rig and Proton Pistol for ya." Dan was about to turn and leave when Lita stopped him, "Hey!" Dan turned back to her as she approached and kissed him.

On the other side of the garage 3 of the 4 other Ghostbusters watched as the recruit kissed their leader. "I have to admit," Kylie started as she buckled her harness in place, "she is very pretty. He's lucky to have her."

"You mean _she's_ lucky to have _him." _Garrett was especially venomous because of what has happened, zipping up his flight suit doing so, "She's in town for a couple days and suddenly ol' Loose Cannon is bringin' cronyism into the outfit?" "Hey, man, give her a chance," Eduardo was making something of an attempt at being the voice of reason, "I mean, she doesn't look frail, or anything. Besides, there's something about her that's… familiar."

"Now that you mention it," Garrett eyed her up, "she does look like I've seen her before. I just can't put my finger on it."

"Guys," Roland buttoned up his work shirt as he broke up the conversation, being the only one not staring at the two of them, "leave the woman alone." Dan and Lita broke their kiss then he called Eduardo out and waved him over, Lita then approaching the three Ghostbusters she was to ride along with. Eduardo looked to the others as he started to walk, "That's my cue," he then looked to Lita as he walked past, "Good luck out there, _Chica_."

"Thank you, Eduardo!" she said cheerfully. He nodded as him and Dan walked into Peter Venkman's old office behind Janine's desk. Lita stopped before Kylie and spoke, looking down to the goth girl who was quite a bit shorter than her, "Okay, _sensi_; I'm ready."

Kylie closed her eyes in irritation and groaned slightly, "Don't call me _sensi_; I feel like Master Splinter, or Mr. Miyagi when you call me that." "Who's Mr. Miyagi?" Lita didn't get the reference. Kylie looked to her and saw that the woman towering over was rather confused, "Nevermind; cultural thing. Grab those orange pads in the locker next to mine." Lita turned to the locker and opened it to find a cache of spare equipment inside. Some of the equipment in there looked more familiar to her, "Oh, wow! I remember this!" she pulled out Dan's original Ectoplasmic Destabilizer pistol. It had a great deal of scuffing and dents in the casing. The green charge canister was bent badly and the charge indicator was hanging by it's cable. It was obvious the device had been retired.

Kylie looked over and saw the pistol in her hand, "Wait, you _remember _that thing?"

"Yeah! These were brand new when the original team came to Tokyo," she placed the damaged pistol back into the locker and grabbed the pads, "Egon and Ray just finished them when they were in town."

"You know," Kylie turned to the woman as she latched an empty trap to her rig, "Neither Dan nor Egon told us how you guys met." "Well, it is a little embarrassing; more for Dan than me, I'm afraid." Kylie stopped halfway putting her Proton Pistol on and looked to the girl who was now putting on the trap rig, "_Really_?" Lita nodded her head as she adjusted the straps on the rig, "I was still in high school at the time. There were people missing in the park; just vanishing, right? Well, they called Egon, Dan, and the others out and they started investigating the park. Dan and Winston were checking out the school and other buildings in the area. As Dan was doing a search, I had to go to my locker for something. The next thing I know I hear a strange noise."

"Strange noise?" Kylie asks as she adjusts the settings on her pistol.

"Yeah," Lita pulled out another Proton Pistol belt and begins adjusting the straps on it as well, "Well, strange things happen in Tokyo all the time, so I took it as something dangerous was around the corner from my locker. I get to the corner and round it, there was Dan with his particle thrower pointed at me. I knocked the thrower outta his hand and I slam my palm into his face."

"You heard his Proton Pack start up, right?"

"What?"

"The strange noise you heard; it was his Proton Pack turning on, right?" to demonstrate, Kylie turned on her Proton Pistol and it gave off a similar - if not higher-pitched - noise. Lita had just clicked the belt of her pistol when the sound reached her ears, "Yeah! It was close to that!"

Kylie smiled a bit, "So you knocked him down for _that?_ I would have figured that noise was famous by now."

"We talked a bit and parted ways. After school, that was when me and my friends met him again along with Ray. That was a little more awkward."

"Wait a second," Kylie was now enthralled in where the conversation was going, "You weren't at the temple shrine near the park when…" Lita was rather surprised she knew, "Yes! My friend's grandfather runs it. How do you know that?"

"I've read the Ghostbusters' case files backwards and forwards. I just didn't know which visit to Japan this was."

"It was 1995," Lita looked a little saddened as the memory came to her, "The office closed up almost 6 months after the visit. When the American Ambassador to Japan denied the paycheck, the Ghostbusters couldn't keep operating. On top of the lack of ghost activity, the others decided it was time to stop. Dan went back to Chicago and started working for his local telephone company."

"How do you know all this, Lita?"

"Me and Dan wrote each other for a few years. At least we did, before…" a loud whistle was heard from the other side of the Ecto-1 as Garrett extended the ramp in the back of the car, "Hey, we got a full task list today. Let's get goin'!" He rolled himself up the ramp and into the car, the ramp retracting back in. Kylie looked to the taller woman before her, "Well, are ya ready?" Lita grabbed another spare trap from the locker and placed it on her rig as Kylie did, "Ready!"

The trap fell off Lita's rig and hit the ground. Kylie facepalmed as Lita looked behind her, then back to the seasoned Ghostbuster, blushing hard as she did, "Okay, I might need some practice with that."

2:34 PM

Dan and Eduardo stepped out of the taxi far outside Manhattan. Dan looked behind him and saw the skyline of the city, a painful reminder of two buildings absent from its scene, "It's not like seeing Chicago from I-55, but it's still impressive." Eduardo looked at the computer printout of the ad and compared the address on a mailbox on the country road. No doubt the cab driver got them there, "Yep, this is it," he looked to the house before him; it was particularly nice with light blue siding and white trim. Next to it was an older metal pole barn the could have used a coat of paint itself, "Man, why are we all the way in West Orange, New Jersey? Wasn't there something closer to the firehouse?"

"Oh, quit bitchin', Eddie," Dan started walking up the gravel path toward the pole barn, "I scouted the whole area and this is what I found. Now do me a solid and _please_ don't talk. If this is what I think it is, we may have a good strike on our hands." One of the garage doors on the barn was open. Dan was dressed in a plain black pocketed tee-shirt, carpenter jeans, and his fitted Chicago Blackhawks hat. Eduardo was dressed in a plain white shirt with his signature leather jacket. As the two out-of-uniform Ghostbusters approached the door, they saw it just off to the side…

A 1986 Ford F-150 Supercab painted black. It had a yellow beacon light on top, fog lamps mounted on the top of the bumper, and a toolbox in the bed. The vehicle was in pristine condition; the paint looked like volcanic glass. Dan was hypnotized by the beauty of its perfect chrome. He stopped and gazed, "Have you ever seen anything so _beautiful_ in your life?"

"Geez, what is it with you and pickup trucks?" Eduardo obviously did not share in Dan's enthusiasm for vehicles. Dan decided to educate the man, "It's called a power-to-weight ratio. These trucks had 460 Ford big blocks in 'em. The bodies on these trucks are much lighter than cars making it possible to get huge speed boosts outta them. With the right changes to the engine, I can get a ballpark number of 600 horsepower outta this thing." From there, a brown-haired kid no more than 17 came walking out of the barn door and approached the two men, "Can I help you?"

Dan turned to the kid, "Hey, you Cody?" The kid nodded prompting Dan to continue, him holding his hand out, "Dan; we spoke on the phone?" The two shook hands as Dan started asking questions, "Okay, so there was some sort of issue with the truck?" The kid again nodded as he let go of the man's hand, "That's why I'm selling it for 1500; I can't get it to run." Dan nodded, "So, what's the story?"

"About 6 years ago my dad passed away in a work related accident. He left the truck to me and ever since _last_ summer when I got my license, I've been trying to get this thing running. I have no idea what's wrong. I just wanna get rid of it and get a Camaro instead."

"Camaro's kinda expensive, isn't it?"

"I just need another 1500 to get it and get it running."

"Ah, older one. Gotcha. Any work done to the truck?"

"First thing I did was change spark plugs and wires, oil change, and recently got a new battery. All the little stuff." Dan nodded as he heard the list of stuff done. Sounded like this kid didn't throw a lot into it. He looked at the kid and asked, "Mind if I poke around the truck a bit?"

"Uh… sure. I'll be in here if you need me," the kid pointed at the garage door of the barn as he started walking that way. Dan nodded as he walked toward the truck. Opening the unlocked driver door, he saw a gray interior and a 5-speed transmission on the floor, "Manual! Sweet deal!" He reached under the dash and pulled the hood latch. The truck's hood clunked as it popped open. Eduardo joined him as he watched him unlatch the hood and open it up. Inside the engine bay was a beast of an engine, "There it is, Eduardo. The mother of all Ford power plants; The legendary 460. Part of the 385 engine family, this engine has a displacement of 7.5 litres; it has a base horsepower of 375, and a base of 450 foot-pounds of torque." Eduardo was watching the stupid grin stretch across Dan's face as his eyes gleamed looking at this engine; he was like a kid at Toys R Us, "Man, I've never seen you so happy before. It's kinda… weird."

"The week has been strange; I'll admit that," the engineer said with a slight chuckle in his voice, "but this is good because we can carry everything and Lita has a place to sit. I mean, you've been in the back of the S-10. Those things don't have any room." Looking at the engine he started pondering what was wrong with it. _The kid did say he changed spark plug wires…_ he thought to himself. He looked at the distributor cap and started tracing the spark plug wires back to the engine cylinders. He nodded and closed the hood. Eduardo saw him nodding, "What's up?"

Dan had a smirk on his face, "I know what the deal is with it." "What?" "I'll tell ya later. For now, just keep quiet and play along. Mill over the truck until the kid gets curious enough to come out."

Some time had passed as Eduardo and Dan looked over every detail the truck had to offer. Every so often the kid would poke his head out of the barn garage door and see what the two incognito Ghostbusters were up to. After Dan noticed the kid do it for the third time, he whistled at Eduardo and waved him over to the center of the gravel driveway. When Eduardo joined him, Dan pointed his back at the barn door and instructed Eduardo do the same. "Okay," now that Eduardo was oriented the way Dan instructed him, he needed to know, "what the hell are we doing?"

"Something Venkman and my brother taught me; what we say isn't important. We're playing mind games with the kid standing with our backs toward him. Now I'm gonna yell at you so he can hear; don't react. Don't even be surprised. Tell me anything; just say something to me, doesn't matter what, and I'll yell." Eduardo understood what Dan was doing. Just to be a smartass, Eduardo had a response, "Your girlfriend is extremely hot, and I can't help but be envious of you."

Dan looked to Eduardo and yelled, but he wasn't acting, "What the _fuck_ do you mean by that?!"

The kid poked his head out of the garage door and saw the one man who had talked to him on the phone was very angry at the man that was with him. The kid started thinking it was his mechanic.

Dan was irritated now, "Dammit, Eddie, that wasn't what I wanted to say!"

"Hey, I was trying to make you sound genuine. Besides, you always told me, 'honesty is the best policy.'"

"Remind me to beat your ass later, jerk-knob!" the kid who owned the truck came up and called out the two, "Is there something wrong, guys?" Dan turned his head back behind him, then turned his whole body as he put a fake look of irritation on his face, "Yeah, so my friend here tells me we're gonna need to do a bit of work on this vehicle to get it running. What're the chances we can drop the askin' price?"

"I donno," the kid shuffled a bit, "I'm kinda firm on the price."

"Well, here's what I'm lookin' at: I might have to spend more money. To even get the tow truck will cost me. It's not fair considering I have to put work into getting this thing running. I'll give you 600." The kid's eyes went wide as he clearly was offended. He went back, "Between me and my father keeping it in good cosmetic condition, it adds to the price. 1400."

Dan had the kid where he wanted him, "It's a vehicle, not a large expensive paperweight. 700."

"1300."

"750."

"1200!"

"800."

"1100!"

"850. Anything otherwise and I walk." The kid looked irritated, but he looked at the situation. After a minute of silence, the kid held out his hand, "Deal." Dan grabbed the kid's hand and they closed the deal.

Some time had passed. The kid came out of the house with a New Jersey state vehicle title, and Dan had his checkbook out and at the ready. On the hood of the truck Dan wrote the check and watched as the kid signed the title over. He tore out the check as the kid folded the paper. After they exchanged paperwork and the kid handed him the keys, Dan signed the title as well, then turned to the kid, "Okay then. Anything else I need to know about the vehicle?"

"The ignition doesn't always engage. Heard it might be a start solenoid or something."

"Okay then. Well, it was good doing business with ya. Hope all goes well with the Camaro hunt." The two shook hands again as the kid went back to the garage. Dan looked at Eduardo and pointed him toward the cab of the truck, "When I signal ya, push in the clutch and start it up. Pop the hood." Eduardo climbed into the truck and pulled the hood latch. Dan opened the hood and went directly for the distributor cap. He pulled off wires and rearranged them on the cap. Stepping to the side to see Eduardo in the truck through the windshield, Dan pointed to his fellow Ghostbuster.

Eduardo dropped the clutch and cranked the engine. The truck roared to life as it went into a rough idle, but quickly it cleared up. The kid came running out of the barn and saw the vehicle working, "What the hell? How'd you do that?!"

"You said you changed the spark plug wires," he closed the hood, "You put them back in the wrong order, so all the firing positions were off."

"You said you needed a tow truck!"

"No, I said a tow truck would cost me money. I didn't say I _needed_ one."

"And that bit of work?"

"Hey, moving around wires _is_ work. So technically I didn't lie to you." The kid was in shock. He just got swindled, and hard. He started, "That's not fair, man!"

"It never is," Dan started for the driver door as Eduardo scooted over to let him in, "but now you know how to negotiate for your Camaro, and avoid being hosed in the future," Dan climbed in and rolled down the window, closing the door and holding his elbow out. He did a poor imitation of Sean Connery, "Here endeth the lesson." Dan put the truck in gear and started out of the gravel driveway and onto the road. The new pickup rumbled as it cruised down the street toward Manhattan.


	10. Dear Grandma Rose

Chapter 10: Dear Grandma Rose…

_June 21, 2002_

_Dear Grandma Rose,_

_It's been a while since I wrote you, but it's been rather hectic the last few days. Remember that guy I told you about, Dan? It seems he's not only had a girlfriend this whole time, but she's extremely loyal to him. When she first arrived, I didn't know what to make of her. At this point, I think I'm not only getting a picture of her, but of Dan. Something happened the other day where he was put into a coma and she stayed right at his side the whole time._

_Remember how I said Dan was a bit… unstable? Seems I was wrong about something, but I'm not sure what to do about it. I guess I should start at the beginning…_

A Pottery Barn on 5th ave was under siege. A class 5 with a bulbous head and 4 arms kept picking up dishes and other flatware and throwing it out the broken front window of the store. Hideous laughter emanated from the creature every time something shattered, ceramic and glass fragmenting on the street and sidewalk. On the outside of the building on both sides of the dividing space were Roland, Garrett, Kylie, and Lita.

"Ugly seems to be enjoying himself," Garrett wheeled around Roland to get a sight of the creature, "A little too much for my taste."

Roland took charge of the situation, "I think we better go for a pincer maneuver. Garrett, go around to the back."

Lita looked to her instructor, "Do we go with him?"

"No," Kylie explained, "We stay to the open areas where possible. Better for trap deployment. Look out!" Kylie had grabbed Lita by the shoulder and pulled her back behind the store's dividing wall. A vase smashed against one of the walls close to the window where Lita and Kylie stood. Garrett rolled in front of the broken storefront quickly and passed the two of them, "'Scuse me, ladies, expert comin' through!" he rounded the corner to reach the alley.

When Garrett reached the back door to the store, he found the door locked, "Time to pick the lock!" He turned the back of his chair to the door and backed up into it with force. The latch took a few whacks before it finally gave, but gave it did. Garrett went flying into the back storage area of the store as his wheels skidded to a stop, his hands on his chair's brakes. Unlocking the brakes, he started rolling toward the front counter where he was well hidden.

"Garrett, Roland," Roland had his radio in hand, "are you in position?" The radio transmission ended with a beep. There was a short burst of static then Garrett came through, his voice just above a whisper, "_Affirmative, big guy. Wanna count us off?"_

"I say we give Lita the honors." Roland threw his radio at the Ghostbuster-in-training. Lita caught it and looked to the man before her, "Are you sure?" Roland nodded his head and smiled. Kylie also encouraged her, "Go ahead!" Lita looked to Kylie with uncertainty in her eyes. All Kylie did was give her a nudge and a smile. Lita pressed the PTT button, "Okay, everyone; on three. One…"

"THREE!" everyone else shouted in unison. Before Lita even realized it, Garrett and Roland started firing their particle throwers at the ghost destroying the overpriced Chinese ceramic. Lita was taken off guard by what was a new team tradition and stood by stunned. Kylie noticed her not firing, "Lita, stop posing for holy pictures and fire!"

Lita shook herself back to reality and started firing her Proton Pistol haphazardly. The stream flew in the opposite direction she intended to fire it and flew toward the counter. Garrett yelped and cut his thrower as the beam came at him. The beam hit the Point-of-Sale register and it went up in a brilliant ball of sparks and fire. Garrett fell out of his chair and hit the ground covering his head, the top of him being covered in change from the register drawer.

The ghost managed to pull free of the one confinement stream and vanished into the ceiling. Roland held his fire followed by Lita. Garrett climbed back into his wheelchair as slowly everyone's eyes were turned to her. Lita couldn't help but clinch her open hand and bring it to her chest in a panic, "I am _soooo_ sorry! I didn't mean to…"

"Its okay, Lita," Roland said calmly, "It happens to even the best of us."

"The hell it does!" Garrett had managed to get around the small counter as he bellowed, "You almost blew me apart, lady! You see that cash register?" he pointed to the flaming POS device, "That could have been my _head_! What in the hell was Dan thinking putting her in with us? She's as dangerous as _he_ is!"

_The ghost got away, unfortunately. Lita stood there and took Garrett's yelling in front of a great deal of people, not just me and Roland. I could see her getting angry, but she took the yelling. After the day was complete and Dan and Eduardo took the Ecto-1 out on night patrol, I invited Lita out for coffee. Dan gave her the day off on her first night shift so she could adapt to the shift properly, so on the in-between I thought I'd try to show her some hospitality. For the issues I had with Dan, I had to do different than Garrett and remember she's not him._

_We went to that small place on Bleeker St. north of the firehouse. She had changed into a green tanktop and jeans. We sat at the table in the shop and spoke a bit about Ghostbusting when she decided to ask…_

"Why do you guys hate Dan so much?" Kylie had her cup to her lips and was about to drink when the taller Japanese girl asked her question. She stopped and put the cup down as she looked away, "Well… it's not that I _hate _him. He's very unpredictable sometimes. I mean, I've never seen so much damage done by one person before," the goth girl looked up to her peer, "I look at it as a possible hazard; at least, that's what me and Garrett think."

"You and Garrett close?" Lita asked then sipped her tea.

"Well, he's more like a brother I never had. I _do_ think he's a bit of an ass, but he's always had the team's best interest at heart; I trust his judgment extensively," Kylie looked to the woman across from her and saw her avert her eyes. The seasoned female Ghostbuster read the body language clearly, "I'm not saying I agree with him about _you_, though."

Lita put her cup down and folded her hands meekly onto the table, looking down as she spoke, "When I first came here a few days ago, all of you were very nice to me; at the moment, I was more Egon's friend in your eyes. I can see you respect him a lot. When Egon mentioned I was Dan's girlfriend…" she took a deep breath and sighed hard as she closed her eyes for a moment. She looked back to Kylie with piercing eyes, "I just feel like after all Dan had done for the original team you'd respect him like Egon and the others."

"We had met Peter, Ray, and Winston, too. At the time, we felt like we were being pushed to the side as they wanted back into the operation."

"Was it because you felt like you were being shown up?" Kylie was rather surprised at that question. She herself averted her eyes back to her coffee cup as she thought about it. Lita looked back up at the woman as she stayed silent for a moment. Kylie sighed as she picked the cup back up, "I guess it was. They had far more experience than us at the time, even with them going their separate ways for a few years. I guess we felt like the originals didn't think we could do it, but we had to realize they just wanted to feel like _they _could still do it themselves."

"Egon believes in Dan. So do I," Lita looked Kylie in the eyes as she said it softly, "He wants you guys to trust him. I know he's got that destructive streak about him, but he'd never put you guys in danger. He's just protecting what he feels is more important. Windows on a building; empty airplanes; vehicles; if they pose an obstacle to saving a person's life, he'll sooner destroy those things before he lets someone get one scratch on 'em," she looked back to her tea and sighed, "He did it for me. Three times."

Kylie was confused by something, "Airplanes?"

"Yeah. Dan destroyed two airplanes at Tokyo International to keep them from running the both of us over."

"What were you doing at a closed airport?" Lita, still looking at her tea, had her eyes suddenly widen as she realized what she just said. _That's right, she knows the Ghostbusters case logs! _she thought to herself, _Egon and the others must of erased the Sailor Scouts involvement from the files!_ "Well, me and my friends…" she looked up and saw the goth girl's piercing green eyes from behind the eye shadow peering into her soul, "Uh…"

_There was something odd about how Lita looked at me when I asked why she was at the airport during the 3rd Tokyo trip. She had explained her and her friends were just doing stupid High School stuff, but something was off about the girl's body language._

_Nevertheless, I think she was just embarrassed by the fact she was caught in such a dangerous situation and she needed to be bailed out by the original Ghostbusters; Dan included. Still, she did explain one thing rather clearly; Dan had disregard for personal property… because someone was in danger. Every single person that was missing from the park in Tokyo that call came back alive. Two airplanes and a whole skyscraper was destroyed, or at least damaged extensively, but they all came back alive. From what I got from Egon, he said Dan took most of the charge that call. Explains the damage._

_Here's the hard part: I'm wondering if maybe I was wrong this whole time. Grandma Rose, how do I go about apologizing about the way I've acted? I always believed Dan didn't care about anything accept his own property. When he destroyed his own truck to save… I donno who, but someone's life in Chelsea, I remember being really confused by the whole thing. After talking with Lita, I guess I shouldn't have been as confused. After what happened with Dr. Venkman, Dr. Stantz, and Mr. Zeddemore visiting us a few years back, I guess I still had that feeling of inadequacy. I'm sure part of it was because Egon put him in charge and we didn't know him. I always felt like Roland should have stayed in charge, but that's only because I had known him for a long time now._

_I guess that shows my bias, huh? Still, Eduardo has been doing something that I've never known him to do; being a voice of reason. He's defended Dan and Lita the last few times me and Garrett talked about it. Roland doesn't like us insulting people behind their backs and has stepped up to defend Dan himself. If Eduardo and Roland agree on something, maybe there's something to their words._

_Still, there's Garrett. He has this severe disdain for Dan. Again, I can't say its hatred for the man himself, but for what he does. Garrett is known for holding a grudge. Remember when I told you the FBI arrested us and put us on a plane with a gremlin loose on it, and it started taking the plane apart with us in the air? Garrett had an issue with government agents since. After Dan accidently destroyed his Playstation 2, it was the same issue. I know they're not quite the same, but to him, it was._

_After we returned to the firehouse, I went back upstairs to Egon's lab and spoke with him…_

Egon was looking into this microscope again as he was comparing samples. Kylie walked in and looked at what her professor was up to, "Hey, Egon," the woman said with lack of enthusiasm. Egon looked away from his lab equipment, "Kylie, you and Lita enjoy your outing?" "I guess," Kylie walked to one of the tables in the lab and took a seat.

After a while, Egon had gone back to his microscope and his computer data as Kylie sat and flicked through the pages of her spirit books. Egon had stood to go to one of his equipment racks when he noticed the goth woman doing so, "Kylie, is there something you wish to discuss?" Kylie looked at her college professor with a look of surprise. She quickly averted her eyes, "Egon, have you ever had an opinion of someone, and up to a certain point you were so sure you were right, but then someone comes along…"

"Venkman." Kylie looked at her teacher and friend as he said the name of his fellow Ghostbuster. It threw her off, but she asked to make sure, "Dr. Venkman?" "When I first met Peter, he was a variable class stooge. I didn't believe in psychology when I first met him; I honestly thought he was in the field for an, 'easy A.'" That sounded almost like what Eduardo first said when she first met him. The first day in Egon's class, Eduardo didn't even take Egon seriously. She looked to him, "I can understand that."

"Anyway, I always believed Peter was always more occupied with women and pranks with his frat brothers to take true science seriously. I honestly believed he was going the way of his father; selling ice makers to eskimos in the Arctic. It wasn't until he decided to invite me out on a night of… how did he put it? 'Public Observation'?" Kylie was confused, but she nodded anyway just to keep him talking. He sat down next to her as he continued, "It was his way of trying to relate the idea of psychological patterns in people and ways to deprogram programmed responses. At the time I thought the idea of such research and study was a waste of precious time, but as I observed various places throughout New York with him, I began to see what he saw.

"You see, Charlie Venkman - Peter's father - was a terrible liar and conman. He almost got us in trouble a few times using the Ghostbusters' name to line his own pockets. Made sense Peter had a fascination with psychology because his father was one of the best opportunists of psychological behavior he'd ever known. It wasn't that Peter wanted to be like his father; his father was almost never around. In a very sad way, Peter was just trying to understand his own father. In the end, he ended up learning and understanding more than he ever thought possible. So did I. You know, it was through Peter I met Ray."

That surprised Kylie. To an extent, she was still rather surprised Egon was opening up at all, let alone telling her about Peter and Ray, and how they became friends and colleagues through the years. Still, this type of information wasn't quite what she wanted to get…

Egon knew, "I understand Dan is a hard individual to get to know. There wasn't much we knew about him even when he was a rookie for the original team; he almost never talked about his private life, where he was from, or even what got him into electronics, let alone the paranormal. Thanks to Peter and his diligence in teaching me body language and context, I actually became less socially awkward, as well as understand people better. It allowed me to understand _him _better, let alone Dan."

"You," Kylie said, "socially awkward? I couldn't tell."

"I used to be much worse," Egon gave a weak smile as he looked to his student, "Of course, as even Janine tells me, I have room for improvement," Egon's smile faded a bit as he looked to the stack of books before him on Kylie's research bench, "Still, Dan is a valuable member I placed in charge because I know he'll do the right thing. I know that tonight you had to have learned about Dan through Lita," he looked back to Kylie, a look of sincerity in his bi-speckled eyes, "Learn to trust him; the both of them. Don't do it for my sake, but for theirs, and yours. You could be missing out on great friendships over meaningless differences."

_I guess Egon had a very valid point. As much as I trust Roland, Garrett, and even Eduardo, not trusting Dan over something one of them is saying may be a disservice to him. I still trust Egon far more than any of the others. In the end, I should _at least _try to understand Dan's reasons behind his actions. Honestly, I never stopped to look into his eyes when I say the things I do. Maybe if Egon can learn something from one Dr. Peter Venkman, maybe I can learn something from one Daniel Shannon._

_If there's anything I have learned from this it's Lita really is Dan's foil; I see more of the good Dan had offered and _has _to offer then what I had seen previously. I'll keep my eyes open from now on._

_As always Grandma Rose, I hope to see you again soon._

_Your Loving Granddaughter,_

_Kylie_


	11. Paths

Chapter 11: Paths

Saturday, June 22nd, 2002

Ghostbusters HQ Roof

12:35 AM

Dan stood on the roof as he had several times in several years being a Ghostbuster. It had been a long day starting the first night shift in company history, but Dan ended the day the same way he almost always did after the Tokyo job. The moon in the sky was near 90% full in the night sky. Dan looked up and saw the Earth satellite in the sky, it almost in full view left a sense of majesty about the desolate rock. Some nights he would come to the roof with a pair of binoculars to see if he could see the remains of the old Moon Kingdom; alas, it was always obscured by a magical field.

"Maybe I should try attaching Ecto-Goggle lenses to a telescope." As the Ghostbuster looked to the sky with a can of Mountain Dew sitting on the ledge of the building, Lita stepped out of the roof access door and walked on the old landing pad used for the Ecto-2 toward him. She looked to the sky as she approached him, seeing what he saw, "You looking for it, too?"

"Every time I'm up here and the phase is close to full," Dan picked up his can of pop and took a sip as Lita approached and slid her hand onto his shoulder. She sighed as she looked to the moon, "I still can't believe where we came from sometimes; makes me wonder if all we did was dream it up," Lita crossed her arms onto Dan's shoulder and leaned onto him, her resting her head onto his shoulder as he stood upright supporting her weight, "Besides the end, it sure seems like a dream."

"I still feel like I failed you." Lita looked up to him and saw he still looked at the moon, a look of regret in his eyes, "I should have been a better protector. I had you die once, and almost had you die on me two more times. I feel like I'm a goddamn danger to you." Lita stopped leaning on him and simply rested her hands on his shoulder, a look of worry on her brow, "What are you saying?" Dan looked briefly into her eyes, then turned his back against the moon as he walked the roof, his shoulder slipping from her grip, "I'm most likely the worst protector of a princess that ever walked this mortal coil. I left you all alone on the moon and you got killed," Dan was now kiddie corner of the ledge he was at. He leaned onto the ledge of the roof as he looked to the street below, "I'm just a terrible leader. I got my army killed; I got my fellow Knights killed; lost our planet; got _you _killed. In this life, I'm just doing the same thing."

"Dan," Lita walked to him and placed her hand onto his shoulder from behind, "you can't beat yourself up for a 1000-year-old assault! We were _all_ attacked! I can't expect you to be everywhere at once; neither did the other Knights; neither did the other Scouts! You did your best to try and keep Jupiter from collapsing!"

Tears formed in his eyes as he closed them and tilted his head down, "My best wasn't good enough. It's _never_ good enough. My old man always told me I was, 'Fuckin' stupid,' so it makes sense. I'm a useless failure that's gonna fail again and again!" Lita was absolutely terrified at what she just heard come from his mouth, "I don't even understand why you still want to be around me," he looked up and over to her…

SLAP! Lita's hand sailed across his face. The slap was so loud, it echoed off the nearby buildings in Tribeca, "You big idiot! I love you for who you are and what you believe in! You are _not_ a failure!" Dan's eyes went cross-eyed from the impact. He blinked a few times to straighten them out then looked to the woman before him, anger clearly written on her face as she continued to scold him, "You're too good a man to doubt himself! I never, _ever_ want to hear you call yourself a failure again, or I swear I'll slap you _so_ hard your mother's _dog_ will feel it!"

Dan was shocked. He rubbed his face, the facial hair on it barely absorbing the impact of the woman's very powerful slap. He looked to her with clear, wide eyes, "You know how in cartoons, when a character gets slapped they say, 'Thanks, I needed that'?" Lita nodded her head, the anger on her face slightly lessened to confusion from the man's question. He responded, "Well… Thanks, I needed that." "What caused you to go off in _that_ direction?"

Dan turned away from her and looked to the opposite edge of the firehouse roof again. He put his hands on his hips, "I worry. I always wonder what I could have done differently; the path never traveled. I sometimes feel like after thinking about it, it should have been obvious to me," he hung his head again, "I even sometimes wonder if the right decision I made was actually the _right _decision."

"You mean regret?" Dan turned to face Lita, but quickly looked away as he nodded, "Yeah. I regret that I told you to stay with the other Scouts in Tokyo. After the letters I sent you came back to me, I thought you had moved on and began forgetting about me. It made me wonder if I mattered to you anymore. When you came here, I was so relieved that you did. When you got hurt…" He closed his eyes again and sighed, "I felt like I was putting you in danger. I was so worried about _my_ feelings, and I forgot about what I was supposed to do as your protector. I really let you down."

Lita looked at Dan as he turned his back to her and placed his hands on the ledge of the building. Even though Dan didn't know that she ran off and tried to fight the Draugr on her own, he still felt like he should have known she was going to do it. She started to realize how much Dan took his leadership and protection roles. He wanted ever so much for everyone to be safe and informed, and took a great risk in trying to prevent as much as he can so no one else would have to face danger. He harmed his own happiness and wellbeing to make sure everyone else was safe; when things went wrong, he blamed himself. Lita knew the feeling all too well. She believed herself to be the strongest Scout; as she should being physically stronger than the rest. The difference between Dan and Lita was one thing she never thought of: Sailor Moon was the leader of the Sailor Scouts; Jupiter Knight was the leader of the Solar Knights. To an extent, Dan and Serena shared certain traits as leaders, including blaming themselves when others get hurt.

Still, there was something more that Dan was referring to that he has yet to state clearly. In the back of Lita's mind she knew a few things about what has happened in Dan's life that had him feeling a different _kind_ of regret, "Riley."

Dan quickly turned around looked at the woman, "What?!"

"You have a niece; Riley." She noticed Dan's breathing became more rapid. He averted his eyes as he tried to calm himself. He was clearly turning red. Lita had unfortunately hit the nail on the head, and that almost made Dan scream in terror. Lita came up and tried to calm the man, "I'm sorry! I never meant to…" her words didn't calm him. He was starting to panic as he gripped his chest and leaned against the ledge of the building. He slid down the short wall and hit the gravel on the roof. He started breathing through his nose and out his mouth as he tried to relieve his panic attack. Lita came up to the man and kneeled beside him as he tried to stop his chest pains.

After Dan had calmed down a bit he was able to speak again, "We need to have a conversation about you milling around in my head. But you're right; I'm an uncle." Dan had the look of regret reappear on his face as he reached into his jumpsuit pocket and pulled out the Polaroids again, him looking at his newborn niece in his brother's arms, "I see her and I wonder what _we_ could have had by now. In the United States, someone at the age I was dating a girl the age you were is considered taboo. Actually, it's _illegal._ When my letters got sent back and I hadn't heard from you again, I felt like I was forgotten, but when Chris sent me these pictures, I felt like I wasted my life; I was destroyed."

Lita now understood why Dan was so upset; he wanted a family. Looking at the little blonde-haired girl in his brother's arms she realized why Dan reacted so harshly, "You had a hard life in love."

"I know Freddie did things to you that made you question yourself," Dan kept looking at the pictures of his niece as he said it, "but you at least got up and tried again. Jamie hurt me; hurt me pretty damn bad. I met you and I felt like a door opened for me. I promptly slammed that door because I knew your place was with the other Sailor Scouts. I kept wishing I could go back and unlock that door again; actually had an opportunity, but I slammed that door, too."

"The DeLorean Time Machine, right?"

Dan looked to her, a look of irritation on his face, "Seriously, stop fucking around in my head!" Lita bit her lower lip as she knew she was traversing in dangerous territory, her averting her eyes as she knew she went too far. Dan shook his head as he looked back to the pictures, "I feel like I did something extremely stupid by telling you to stay behind. I ain't gettin' any younger, and the longer I delay this, I feel like it'll be too late. I don't want to… put pressure on you. I'm not that kinda guy. It's just that the more I see something like this at an older age, I won't get to enjoy the thrills of seeing my kids grow. My parents were barely there for me; I know you had it even worse," he sighed, "I just feel like if I get to that point when I'm old I won't live long enough to see the best parts."

"As I see it," Lita said now sitting beside Dan on the gravel of the roof, "there are no good decisions, and there are no bad decisions; there's just decisions. Being you were trained as an engineer, you have that whole, 'Murphy's Law' thing beaten into your head. In one of your letters, I remember you telling me, 'If you don't take chances and play it safe, you'll find yourself not going far.' I managed to get on a plane and made it to the United States _twice_ because of your advice. When are _you _going to start taking risks?" Dan looked to her; her green eyes still shined bright in the moonlight as he saw her in the silhouette of the moon. There was a great deal of emotion in her eyes as she scooted closer to him.

Dan put his arm around her as she rested her head onto his chest, curling her legs up to her chest. She spoke softer as she looked up to him, "I love you too much to see you beat yourself senseless over an old decision. After all; you were right," Dan looked to the woman resting her head on him as she concluded, "the other Scouts needed me. Had you listened to me - a lovestruck kid - my friends would have died. Let's not focus on what ifs and just be together." Dan rested his head onto hers. All Dan wanted was for this moment to never end.

The two basked in the moonlight, a blanket of stars hung over the city. All the adventures he had as a Ghostbuster… Lita was right, he thought. How could have he wasted his life? He witnessed many things as a Ghostbuster - things people could only fathom in their dreams. The best of it all, he had a very beautiful girl in his arms beside him all because he _was_ a Ghostbuster. Hell of a slapper, but she cared for him so much he couldn't believe how lucky he was. It was rare anyone other than himself thought he was wrong; he was a humble, modest man with severe doubts, but between Egon, Lita, Janine, and Roland… Eduardo too, sometimes… They all trusted him. Maybe he wasn't such a failure like Garrett, Kylie, and Eduardo's brother Carlos thinks. Maybe other people could be wrong.

Still the modest engineer, Dan just kept his mind open. He placed his hand onto Lita's head and held her closer, "Lita, I love you. When we were apart, I felt like half of me was missing. I felt like I was this hollow man walking through a mist. I kept waking up every day wondering why I even bothered. I kept seeing you everywhere…"


	12. The Milkman's Son

Chapter 12: The Milkman's Son

_It was February of 1996. As you know, there was a massive ghost drought in New York._

Outside of the firehouse, Peter, Ray, Egon, Winston, Janine, Slimer, and Dan stood in the cold early spring air dressed in winter clothes. Ray had a sign in his hand. There was a hook on the door specifically for this purpose, despite the fact no one wanted to use it. Ray had a very sad look in his eyes as he walked to the door and hung the sign on it. Backing away, the sign read, "Out of Business." It looked to be the hardest thing the Occultist ever had to do, "Well," he said with a tremble in his voice, "this is it." Slimer started balling as he flew away; a trail of tears and ectoplasm left in his wake.

"Geez," Peter watched as the little green ghost zipped away from all of them, "I never thought the spud would take it so hard. Then again," he looked to the sign as he sighed, "I never thought this place would end."

"We teetered on the edge of this place closing so many times," Winston was still in disbelief of what had happened, "I just thought we'd bounce back again like we always did."

The rookie Ghostbuster of the group shook his head, a heavy sigh leaving his mouth; hot breath turning to steam in the cold air, "I guess our luck just ran out," he placed his hands into the pockets of his Chicago Blackhawks hoodie as he looked to his employers… _former_ employers.

"So the question is," Ray spoke up, clearing the tears from his eyes, "Who's going to watch the Containment Unit?"

_After a short debate, Egon had decided he was going to stay behind. Shortly after, Peter and Ray said their goodbyes and began walking to the nearby subway. They inevitably took separate flights from JFK out of town going their separate ways leaving me, Winston, and Janine. Egon wasn't the most eloquent with words, but in truth, the three of us were _technically _hired employees; he gave a short lay-off speech. It wasn't terrible, but Janine…_

_Oh, poor, poor Janine…_

_She burst into tears and ran to her car. She took off as fast as she could away from the firehouse. I remember looking at Egon; I could tell he regretted that. He was mentally kicking himself._

_Me and Egon said our goodbyes to Winston as his dad picked him up. They drove away from the firehouse leaving only me and Egon outside the building. We looked at each other, the both of us almost unsure of what to say to each other. I couldn't help but comment…_

"This is all my fault." Egon looked to the younger man who was still with him outside the firehouse. Dan walked to the back of his truck, the Original Lucky Black - a black 1992 Chevy S-10 stripped in white/red hazard tape with a Ghostbusters logo on each door, and two red/white light bars on top. He kicked the bumper hard as he repeated himself, "This whole thing is my goddamn fault! Had I not blown up half of Tokyo, we'd still be in business!"

"Daniel," Egon began, "you can't blame yourself…"

"The _fuck_ I can't!" He kicked the side of his truck again, denting in the bed. He then kicked it again, and again, and _again._ Egon watched in horror as Dan kept putting dents into the side of his very cherished truck, his kicks corallating with each thing he said aloud, "I _fucked _us! I _fucked _us! I! **FUCKED!** _**US!**_" When Dan was done, he backed up and saw that the whole passenger side of his S-10 was dented with size 13 boot-sized dents. After he caught his breath, he realized what he had done to his vehicle. He walked to the tailgate and sat down on the bumper, his head in his hands.

Egon had never seen this in Dan before. He truly believed his work in Tokyo had actively caused the Ghostbusters demise financially. He even started damaging his own vehicle to punish himself for what he did. Egon walked up and sat beside Dan on the tailgate, almost slipping off the first time before finding a way to brace himself, "Dan," the physicist placed a friendly hand on the man's shoulder, "You didn't know what Jedite was going to do; you didn't know what _Ambassador Flint_ was going to do. I know you destroyed what you did to save the Sailor Scouts' lives. You destroyed what you did to save those people in Tokyo. You saved _us. _ALL of us. You can't let the financial burden of this business undervalue the lives you saved. Even Lita would agree with me."

Dan took his head out of his hands and looked at the man sitting beside him on his tailgate. Dan looked down and reluctantly nodded his head. Egon stood up, Dan following slowly after. Egon spoke again, "If somehow this operation goes back into business, I would like to hear from you," Egon looked at his Rookie - his friend - and held out his hand for the younger man to shake, "In the meantime, whatever you do out there, I know you'll do your best."

_Me and Egon shook hands for what I thought would be the last time. From there, I began the ride back home to Chicago._

_In the weeks leading up to the firehouse finally closing, I had all my stuff shipped back to a house my brother owned in Joliet. I paid him rent and started job hunting. Just as I arrived at the house, I went to close up Lucky Black when the rear differential case suddenly went, "SNAP!" and both rear wheels suddenly shot from the bottom of the truck. I had just barely made it back to Illinois before the truck decided to commit suicide._

_In the days after - as hard as it was - I sold the truck for scrap, went to the Chicago PD auctions and got a beater in the meantime, then I interviewed for Ameritech._ _I remember when I first started working at Ameritech out of the Theodore street garage, I arrived at the garage one morning and I was loading a stack of modems in my truck…_

In an old worn down garage in a fenced off compound, Dan is seen with a stack of white boxes. He places the boxes on the bumper of large work truck, but still leaning into them to keep them from falling as he opened the back hatch of the vehicle. Other technicians were doing the same as Dan. From out of the corner of his eye he saw something. It looked like a green dress on a woman with brown hair walking barefoot by the main compound gates. He took a double take as he looked at what little he saw. He halfway closed the door and found the figure had advanced to the corner of the garage building itself, just barely stepping behind the corner. Dan threw the boxes into the back of the truck as he broke out into a full run around the corner. When he got there…

The figure vanished.

_I remember walking back to the back of my truck bewildered. I asked the other techs if they saw what I did, but they looked at me like I was a babbling retard. When I realized they didn't and weren't going to believe me, I just closed the doors, got into the truck, and took off. This wouldn't be the last time…_

Weeks later in a random area of the west Chicago suburbs Dan was standing at a junction box owned by his phone company. Taking a spool of twisted pair wire, he fed the wire through the box to the other side then proceeded to walk to the other side. He crouched down, grabbed the purple and blue wire, and secured them to their tie-down posts. Dan stood up and looked over the top of the box.

Lita was standing here. She reached out with her hand and carressed Dan's cheek. This shocked Dan so hard he dropped his screwdriver he was using in the junction box. He quickly bent down again to grab it, but when he stood back up, she was no longer there. Looking around, he saw her down the street looking at him from behind a hedgerow. He saw her smile and walk behind it. Dan ran at full force to her location completely ignoring the junction box's doors being left open. He went around the hedgerow.

She was gone again.

_I remember standing there looking around me completely confused by what had happened. I knew you weren't actually there, but I felt your hand touch me. For the next 4 years, there was nothing; I didn't see you again even in my waking moments. It may have been my mind making an attempt to get me to start writing to you._

As the years went on, Dan would climb telephone poles, access backroom terminals, and crawl through people's crawlspaces. Nights would get late as Dan pulled into the driveway of his house in an old red VW Jetta. He'd check his mailbox and find a letter with Japanese postmarkings. His tired eyes would light up as he quickly made his way into the house.

_Walking into my office in my tiny little house, I opened your letters and read how you and the other girls were doing. It was the only thing I was looking forward to at the end of my shitty days. Unfortunately, most of your care packages never arrived without someone else opening them in Customs; I assumed the cookies you baked were enjoyed by the Customs officers because the boxes were always empty. Jagoffs. I remember getting the picture of you graduating with the others; cap and gown. Was rather surprised Serena graduated._

_The last letter I got from you said you had to go to Futaba for a bit to take care of something. You were rather vague, but I assumed you had your reasons. When I sent a letter back…_

Dan came home one particular night; it was raining. A massive thunderstorm came into the area around his town and destroyed a great deal of telephone lines from the high winds. He had been working for close to 16 hours without a break on an emergency detail. Dan dragged himself into his house, but not before he saw a letter in his box with Japanese postmarkings. He excitedly grabbed the letter, but something was wrong. The postmarkings indicated a return to sender. It was _his _letter to Lita.

_I looked at the letter and I didn't get it at first. I should have figured it was a return to sender because of how fast it came back to me; There was at least a 2 month delay between us sending letters. At first I thought it was a fluke and sent you another letter with the original letter along with it. A week went past and I got that one back as well. I tried getting ahold of Raye's temple, but that Chad idiot lost my message to her… Or her grandfather found the message and tore it up. Wouldn't be surprised; he's _still _pissed at me for the roof._

_At the time, Ameritech was in the middle of talks with Southwestern Bell Company; SBC. SBC had been gaining size for some time and they finally decided to start buying the Baby Bell companies in the midwest. I tried to tell you about it in the letters, but you didn't see them._

_I wish you did. My God, did I need you then…_

In a conference room inside the Joliet Garage, a manager, an IBEW union shop steward, and Dan sat at a table. The manager was talking to Dan. Dan had on an older blue Ameritech-branded polo as the manager wore a clean, new, white SBC dress shirt. Dan had a look of disheartment on his face for what happened next…

_My manager wrote down on a form that had three parts to it. When he was done, he tore the white copy and placed it in my employment folder. He tore out the yellow copy, handed it to our shop steward. The pink copy…_

_It was my pink slip. I was laid-off from SBC. They fired me._

_When I was escorted outside, I found our shop steward yelling at our union rep. Our steward was absolutely pissed at this guy. Why shouldn't he? This guy was a real scumbag. He sold our contract concessions to get SBC to buy Ameritech and other baby bells under IBEW control; he screwed us. After our steward turned and walked away from the man in a huff, he came up to me…_

"Mr. Shannon?" an older white haired man in his late 50's walked up to Dan as he loaded his personal effects into the trunk of his red VW. The man was a heavy-set man wearing glasses and an expensive set of casual workwear. He put his hand out, "Mr. Shannon, I was just talking to your steward, and I understand everyone is… _tense _about the merger. Just know, we'll always be here to help you."

"Help me?" Dan scoffed as he closed the lid to his trunk, "How did you help me? How did you help _anyone_ that got laid-off today?" He turned and looked at the man behind him, "Huh? Did you help Alex? He has three kids; his third was just born 2 months ago! What about Brian? He has two boys of his own and one is sick with leukemia! Tony just got married! What the _fuck _did you do to help, other than help yourself to fucking all of us over and helping yourself to company money?!"

"I understand you're upset about what happened, but we'll make a valiant attempt to…"

_I was done listening to him. I straight up punched him in the mouth as hard as I could. I ended up knocking out two of his teeth and getting his blood on his expensive clothes. The guy called the police, but lucky for me, the cop that arrived laughed at the fat fuck; the cop's brother was an Ameritech technician, too. God, I love Joliet cops._

_For the next month I sat at home. I didn't get a chance to try and write you again after that because at that point, I figured you needed your time. I was feeling like for the last 4 years up to that point was a test in futility. Ghostbusters was dead, you didn't respond, and damn near everyone else out there in various businesses didn't want to hire me because I was both a Ghostbuster AND a union goon because of Ameritech. My bank account was running thin; I started selling my personal possessions to try and keep the lights on and food in the fridge; the Jetta was starting to fail hard, and when German cars finally fail, they fail horribly; all in all, my heart was hurting._

_One day, after trying to fix the Jetta with whatever I could pull from a boneyard - and getting limited success - I sat down at my computer desk where my TV was located and just turned to the news. At this point, I was looking for anything worse than what my life offered to make me not feel so bad about my life. Much like fixing the Jetta, most of the time it came with limited success._

_That day was different._

Dan sat at a bench made from kitchen countertops anchored to the wall acting as a desk. In the corner of the desk was his computer monitor, to the left of the corner was the TV, and to the right was an electronics soldering and testing station. The desk was a mess with various half-built projects and takeout containers. For the last month, Dan had given up on everything in his life.

His computer chair was turned to the TV, but Dan wasn't actually watching. He sat in his chair and looked to the pink slip of paper in his hand from a month before. He couldn't believe what had happened to him still. He crumpled up the paper and threw it to the floor. He put his head in his hands as he sighed, "Someone… Help me."

"_In New York today," _the news reporter said with fake enthusiasm, "_there seems to be something strange in _this _neighborhood as four college students take up the roles of paranormal exterminators from a bygone era. Tiffany?"_

Dan looked to the floor mostly ignoring the report as he kept asking himself, "What am I gonna do?" That was until he heard it from the female news reporter, "_That's right Byron. I'm here with the Ghostbusters…"_ Dan's head shot up as he heard the name come over the TV. The rest of the report's audio becomes just noise as he saw 4 college aged kids on the TV in the middle of a capture. The equipment looked different, but it was still the Ghostbusters; the patches on the uniforms were the same logo; they were even driving the Ecto-1. Dan stood from his chair and looked at the TV as Egon came onto the screen doing a short interview. Dan's head was spinning. He suddenly had a feeling of hope; it felt like someone answered a prayer.

Dan suddenly felt a presence in the room behind him.

_It was you. You stood there in my house as real as you were here. I felt the warmth of your hand touch my face again as you drew me into a kiss. I opened my eyes and you were actually still there. You only said one thing to me…_

"_Go."_

_I blinked again and you were gone. I knew what it meant. I went to my closet and I started pulling out my suit and all my old equipment. I had my old Ectoplasmic Destabilizing pistol sitting in a protective case on top of my TV. I promptly opened the case…_

Dan looked at the pistol in his hand. It had been years since he played with it. He powered it up and it whirled to life, "Looks like I'm back in the game. Time to get delt my hand."

_I packed everything up, sold my neighbor my Jetta, and got my brother to give me a ride back to the Chicago PD auto auctions. I needed a replacement vehicle. When they rolled out a fairly new Chevy S-10 Xtreme modified with a Whelin blown 350 small block, I knew I was being put back on the path. It was _exactly _like the original Lucky Black; I knew who had the vehicle before. I bid on the vehicle. No one else did…_

"I-hear-500-do-I-have-600-600-600…" The fast talking of the auctioneer didn't make the man less understandable to the people in his space. Dan, knowing the history of his previous vehicle had something of an upper hand. He was walking the crowd beforehand and he started telling the tale, "You know this was a drug vehicle, right?" People would ask how he knew and he took out the picture of the original truck before it was converted into a Ghostbusters Ectomobile. It was identical with the exception of the year. By the time the auctioneer started on the truck, only Dan put in the $500 bid. No one else wanted an old drug running truck.

_After I paid the ticket, I loaded my gear into the truck and said goodbye to my brother. Straight from the auction, I laid patch and tore out of Illinois toward New York…_


	13. Missed Words

Chapter 13: Missed Words

"When I see tomorrow, I see you there. I kept hope I'd see you again, even if at the time I know it wouldn't be today," Lita was hearing him tell his story as she put her arms around him. They still sat on the roof of the firehouse in the same place as before. She remembered Dan saying that two letters returned to him that didn't get delivered. She also remembered him saying he thought she had forgotten him. She felt as though she needed to say something, "Dan, I never forgot you."

"I know," Dan was trying to devert what was said; he didn't want Lita to think he was accusing her of something, "Honestly, if you found someone else I wouldn't have been upset." Lita looked to him and saw that he didn't mean it; the very idea tore him up inside, but again he was willing to sacrifice his happiness for her. He sighed, "Come on, I have something to show you."

In the bunk room in the far side of the room sat a desk. Dan pulled out a white binder from the side of the computer monitor. He turned on the desk lamp as he set the binder on the open space between the edge of the desk and monitor. Dan looked to Lita and held out his hand indicating for her to sit down.

Lita sat at the desk and opened the binder. Inside, she found handwritten letters in her handwriting. She looked it over and realized what it was, "Dan… t-these are…"

"I saved every letter and every picture you sent to me." Indeed they were. Every letter Dan received was in the binder along with copies of letters he sent to Lita. All of her letters were handwritten on colorful floral-patterned paper. Dan's were rather bland; he typed all of his out on a computer and sent them on regular printer paper. Each letter was in a sheet protector with the pictures arranged in the outside of the sheet protectors. It was almost like a storybook with the care each letter was laid out.

4 years worth of letters came and went as Lita flipped through the pages. She remembered all the crazy phone stories Dan wrote about as she looked through the binder. See remembered moments of sadness as she read her own words. A flurry of emotions came to mind as she looked at the old papers and old photos in the book. That was, until no more of her letters were in the book; the last two were the bland printer paper Dan used. Inside the protectors behind the letters were the returned envelopes with the Japanese markings on them, "Your last letters."

Dan was sitting on the bunk closest to the desk; his bunk. He had sad and tired eyes; it had been a long day, but the emotional marks ritted his face with the exhaustion. He looked to the letters, then back to her. She knew what he wanted her to do. She turned to the letters and started reading the first one…

_September 2nd, 1999_

_Dear Lita,_

_I'm sorry to hear you have to go to Futaba for a while. I hope it doesn't mess with you getting into that culinary school you were talking about; sounds like a good way to teach the teachers what for. Oh, and thank you for the tips on the Beef Stroganoff recipe. I made it the way you suggested and Chris - my brother - really enjoyed it._

_Yeah, things are kinda starting to hit the fan here. Me and my mom got into another argument because I'm not helping her rebuild her house. The company's been kicking my ass with all the weather knocking things down. What's worse, they're saying the weather is going to get worse as the month goes on. With her constantly hounding me, I lost my temper again and told her off. That was when she called me a mistake. I know it isn't the happiest thing to say; I know you've been wanting me to try and keep the peace with her, but she can't get it in her head that I'm not a kid anymore, and that was the last straw with her. I got angry and told her I'm done being her son. I haven't talked to her since, and it may be a while._

_On top of all this, SBC is finally pushing through with the merger. Ameritech is getting steamrolled bad, and the IBEW isn't doing anything about it. When we were holding our meetings at the VFW down the street from the garage, every time someone from my garage stood up, we were told to talk about it in the bar after the meeting. That's a red flag if I ever heard one. The guys who made the biggest stink - me, Tony, Alex, and Brian; the guys I trained with - I feel like we just hooked the battery cables to our dicks. It's all the matter of someone hitting the switch._

_I'm sorry to get graphic back there, but things are falling apart. Literally. That Jetta I have just blew the starter and I just fixed the coil pack on it. I miss driving an American car. _

_I wish you were here. I just can't get away from family drama, work drama… Whenever I think of you I feel like we did that night in the park, right before _he _appeared; bliss. God, I miss you. I just want you in my arms, if even for a few moments. Things would be better if you were here with me._

_I know I told you to take risks, but I can't seem to get away from them. Every morning I get up and every night when I get home, I ask myself, "Why do I try?" I feel like I'm dodging the world's most psychotic people. When I was a Ghostbuster, the dead didn't scare me as much as the living. I have this hole in my heart and I don't know why I even try anymore._

_Then I get a letter from you, and the world feels bright again. There's hope and happiness. If I can't be with you, then at best I can hope to hear from you. I know with everything going on in our lives it's hard to find something to remind ourselves we're not alone. I see your letter in the colorful envelope sticking out of my mailbox and I take that very moment to see what has been happening in your life; the weird thing Amy said that you don't understand; the stupid argument Serena and Raye had this week; the good deal you found on that dress with Mina… It makes me miss the guys, Janine, and even Slimer. I know you haven't met Janine, or Slimer, but for those 9 months I was there, all 6 of them made that firehouse a fun place to be. You're a little more fortunate than me: your friends are still there._

_I went from happy to sad again. I'm sorry; I have so much on my mind, I guess I'm just letting my fingers do all the thinking. Anyway, I hope whatever you need to do in Futaba goes well; I have confidence you'll take care of it._

_With love,_

_Dan_

Lita's heart felt like a stone. Things at this time in Dan's life were getting bad and she didn't know. She didn't want Dan to worry about her because of what happened in her life at the time, but it clearly seemed like they needed each other. He still didn't know…

She began the second letter postmarked a little over a month later. She almost dreaded thinking about the letter, let alone reading it. She began…

_October 10th, 1999_

_Dear Lita,_

_My last letter came back to me saying it was undeliverable. I've attached my previous letter to this one in hopes you'd see both and know what's been happening._

_It has been a really crappy month. Just tonight I got done with this insane 16 hour shift. They finally let me go home and sleep for the next 2 days, but I don't feel right. To explain, the weather had gone sideways the last month with late season tornados and massive thunderstorms. A lot of our equipment and lines around Joliet had to be repaired. I've been on this 16 hour dog-and-pony show shift for almost 3 days. I feel like I'm going to die. _

_The merger is finally over with. After I take my days off, the managers have called all of us to come into the garage to discuss the rumors about techs being laid-off. I'd be lying if I said nothing was gonna happen. Brian's youngest son just got diagnosed with Leukemia 2 weeks ago. He's a single father and has no one else to turn to if this goes badly. Poor man's had enough shit happen to him. After what happened to my grandfather, I tried to give him the best support I could give. The poor man is just tore up about it, too. No man should ever have to go through that alone. I told him if there's anything he needs, ask me and it's his. _

_Then there's Alex. In the last letter I forgot to tell you his kid was born; a boy. On top of the new one, he was telling me his daughter is having suicidal thoughts. It scared the hell out of me when he told me this. With all he's trying to do at work, having a new mouth to feed, and everything else, having your daughter having those thoughts… it's amazing he hasn't lost his hair yet. He's fighting to keep it together. I pray he can get the time to get her therapy. I've met her; she's a good kid. She's just been teased too much about how odd she is. I think the both of us can relate._

_Tony's been running around with his head cut off. He got married about a month ago and his wife is already starting to worry about their house. From what he was telling me, she said she felt like the marriage was a mistake. That's something no man wants to hear from a woman he loves. I know love is a painful game if you don't get the right partner, but that is a blunt - if not extreme - way of announcing intentions. Tony never did anything to anyone; the man couldn't hurt a flea. This whole situation is getting worse; everyone is just going through hell at the moment._

_If I did something - said something - for you to not write to me; I'm sorry. I know you said you'd get your mail forwarded to Futaba, but after this last letter, I wonder if I got the right address. I haven't heard anything and I'm wondering if you have grown tired of me._

Lita read that line and put her hand to her chest. She finished the letter as a tear came to her eye.

_I don't mean to jump to conclusions, I just need a voice of reason in my life; you're the absolute sanist voice I can trust right now. I'm hoping you can see this letter; I could really use your support. Maybe you can help me tell the others what to say. I know apart, we're only relying on our physical strength. Be with me - and my fellow techs - through this. I love you very much Lita. If you left me, I don't know what I'd do._

_Please, don't forget me,_

_Dan_

Lita couldn't remember one other time when Dan asked her to be with him on something. It really was a low point where he was at that time. The fact she never saw this letter until now told her what worse case scenario was. She felt bad about the whole situation. She looked to him, still sitting on his bunk waiting silent for her to respond. She had tears in her eyes, but he sat there cold and stone-faced. The time had passed. He refrained from reacting knowing it would fuel the emotional fire that burned within her. She still had questions, "What happened with Brian's son?"

Dan felt to on-the-spot considering the situation. It took a moment for him to respond. He averted his eyes, "He didn't make it." Lita closed her eyes as she tilted her head down; her tears escaping her eyes as she closed them. He shook his head as he looked back toward her, "Some things in this life we can't stop. If there was anything I did manage to see was Alex's daughter survived her depression. I donno how many times I read that letter and not thought of those kids," Dan sighed as he looked away, "I wish I could save them all. Kids that young don't even know what life is until about 20, but sometimes you have to account for sensitivity and reality; sometimes, God isn't that forgiving," he looked off into the wider spaces of the bunk room with tears in his eyes, "Maybe that's why I'm a Ghostbuster; to atone for God Himself."

Lita opened her eyes. She heard the man's words as she looked at him with wide eyes. A look of regret was in his eyes as he took notice of her eyes on him. There was a feeling of self-hatred and regret in his eyes as he looked at her. He truly felt like he should have known more to help others. She felt his feelings thanks to their telepathic link feeling regret for what he believed was lack of helping kids in their time of need. He also felt like he was in need as a child. Part of his emotional baggage as a child almost being abandoned to the hordes of bullies that didn't understand or care for the fact he was different; his intelligence left him open to be lambasted by fellow students. He felt as though no child should ever know those feelings; any of them. It was a cross he felt he had to bare this whole time.

Lita looked to Dan and stood up, tears streaking down her cheeks, "Dan, I'm sorry! I didn't know…" Dan immediately stood up and wrapped his arms around her as she started crying uncontrollably on his shoulder. The two of them shared tears as they stood in the bunk room of the firehouse. As they held each other, a set of eyes watched them from the 3rd floor access firepole down into the bunk room. A sniffle was heard as a little green ghost floated away into the greater darkness of the 3rd floor.

The two held each other in their arms. Not another word was said as the two exhausted themselves into their depression. With a high amount of happiness, there was a great deal of sadness to accompany. The two of them finally wore themselves out and went to bed; they shared a bunk with Dan holding Lita from behind her. Despite the sad moments, the two of them went to bed calmly with Dan's arms around Lita. As they held each other closely, their faces became more serine. Dan was still in his Ghostbuster uniform as Lita was still wearing the tank top and jeans from after her shift. It didn't matter how they dressed; they were content. In each other's arms, they slept that way throughout the night.

What tomorrow was to bring was yet to be seen…


	14. Of Green And Envy

Chapter 14: Of Green And Envy

Saturday, June 22nd, 2002

Ghostbusters HQ

7:00 AM

Janine had walked into the firehouse to approach her desk. As she walked passed the Ecto-1, she passed Peter Venkman's old office and heard rummaging being done at the desk behind her filing cabinets. Almost no one went back there except Dan and Egon with few exceptions; it was more of a storage area these days. She walked through the gates into the office and saw Slimer at the desk drawing with pens and markers.

The drawings were crude and unsophisticated; they looked like they were drawn by a kindergartner. Janine picked one of the drawings off the floor and looked at it; it was a drawing of Slimer and Lita holding hands and a large heart in the background behind them. The other drawings around her were of similar content, "Slimer?"

The little green ghost hadn't even noticed the secretary walk into Peter's office. She watched as he panicked and started hiding the drawings at the desk along with the markers. She looked on holding the paper out to show him, "Slimer, what's the meaning of this?" He ignored her and started flying up toward a firepole access, bunches of paper in his arms. There was this bizarre sense of tension filling the air as the Ghostbusters' secretary watched the ghost disappear to the next floor as fast as his ectoplasmic body could fly.

Janine cocked an eyebrow seeing the ghost fly off upstairs. She looked back to the slightly slimy piece of paper with the drawing on it; confusion was on her face as she looked at the picture. She only had one conclusion, "I gotta show this to Egon."

"He did _what?_" In Egon's lab, Janine handed the paper to Egon and showed him. Egon grabbed it and studied it, "Fascinating."

"I think Slimer is having feelings for Lita. It's odd; I've never seen him do this before. I've been noticing him hiding away whenever Lita came into the same room as him. I didn't realize…" Janine trailed off. She sighed as she put her hands on his hips, "What are you going to do?"

"I clearly need to speak with him," Egon stood from his chair and walked to the lounge area, "Slimer?" he called out, "Slimer, can I see you in the lab, please?" Janine walked up behind him and put her hand on his shoulder, "Egon, please be subtle. You're not exactly the fatherly type."

Slimer had floated on down the stairs from the upstairs kitchen with a small stack of sandwiches. Once he reached the bottom, he noticed Janine was with Egon. He froze as he saw the both of them. Egon raised the drawing up for Slimer to see, "Slimer, I know this is a little disturbing, but we need to talk about this." Slimer dropped the sandwiches and put both of his hands to his mouth in terror. He turned to fly away when Egon became stern, "Slimer!" He stopped, his back turned to the scientist. Egon sighed as he spoke more softly, "Please, Slimer. You're not in any trouble, but…" He heard the little ghost sniffle as his head lowered and he dropped his arms to his sides. He turned to the scientist and showed he had tears in his eyes.

Egon and Janine were taken aback as Slimer hung his head and floated into the lab. The little ghost acted like he was heading to the gallows; absurd considering he was already dead. After the little ghost entered the lab, Egon discreetly closed the door.

An hour had passed. Egon had a mostly one-sided conversation with the spud as Slimer still hung his head low with his hands folded together sitting in a chair across from him. Egon had heard what little he had to say, but the ghost ultimately stayed quiet. "So, that's the main reason something like this wouldn't work out. Do you understand, Slimer?"

The little ghost spoke what few words he could, pointed to himself as he did, "_Yeah; dead."_ Egon took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes with his free hand; even Slimer already knew it was just making everyone more tense, but there was one thing still bothering him. Slimer started talking to Egon in his normal gibberish as the scientist shot his head up, eyes wide like he just heard the most insane thing he's ever heard, "You want to do _what?_ Slimer," Egon scrambled to put his glasses back on, "I don't think Lita would like that. I don't even think _Dan_ would like that; he'd have no issue putting you into the Containment Unit. He's not as controllable as Peter was." Slimer visibly looked down knowing what he was asking was walking a hard line. Nevertheless, he looked back to his old friend and spoke english, his hands placed palms together as he was praying, "_Please?"_

Egon was about to explain once again why, but looked to the ghosts eyes. Slimer looked so sad he actually began to hurt the man. Egon never normally let someone else's emotions get the better of him, let alone influence his logic, but there was something about Slimer's face that made him think twice about it. After a moment, Egon nodded his head, "Okay, but you do realize I'll have to talk to Dan first." Dan's name caused Slimer to recoil in horror, "_No, no, nevermind! Nevermind!"_ Slimer was once again heading to a firepole access when Egon stood up and called out to him, "If I don't, it may be your only chance!" Slimer stopped short of the firepole, "She'll likely go back to Japan and you'll never see her again. At the least, try to do it before you make a mistake you'll have to live with for the rest of your afterlife." Egon watched as the ghost grabbed the sides of his own head and shake it around. After a moment, Slimer dropped his arms to his sides again, a sigh heard as he again spoke in English, "_Okay."_

This whole ordeal with Lita coming to the firehouse had really left things in upheaval. Egon didn't blame her, but he couldn't deny things went more the way of chaos than it ever previously did. What he just did with Slimer was _the_ most uncomfortable conversation he ever had. Slimer had floated out of the room through the normal door to the lab with his head still hanging low. This whole time, the sandwiches sat on the floor just outside of the lab. Slimer picked them all up and dumped them into the garbage as he wandered in the darkness of the second floor.

Egon watched as Slimer roamed around aimlessly. He wasn't sure if he did the right thing, "Peter, I wish you were here right now; I really could use your help."

An hour had passed. Dan and Lita were still asleep in each other's arms as Slimer phased through the ceiling of the bunk room and floated down to Lita. Through the night, Lita had managed to remove her hair tie letting her brown hair down. Her bangs were in her face as the mild sunlight coming through the front of the firehouse window graced her face. Slimer moved a few strands of hair from her face to reveal her beauty. He knew what he was doing was wrong. He looked behind her and saw the Ghostbuster she was dating holding her in his sleep.

Slimer and Dan didn't not get along; Dan and Slimer learned a long time ago to keep distance from each other, but there was no bad blood - or ectoplasm - between them. This is what scared the spud. He liked Dan too much to not make him angry; he didn't want to lose a friend over a woman. In a very wrong way, Slimer was envious of the Ghostbuster; he was already green, might as well be. It almost made him hate the man. In his mind, he knew the girl was off limits, but his one request to Egon made him realize how much he was putting his ectoplasm in the ringer when Egon told him he needed to speak with Dan about it. It was starting to stress the poor ghost out as he started whimpering.

The noises he was making made Lita stir. She started moaning and moving around as she started to awake. Slimer froze in terror again as the woman's eyes began to open. When she shifted around, the hair Slimer had brushed away from her face fell back into her view. Slimer took this opportunity to fly back in the direction he came. As Lita began sitting up, she heard a very loud SPLAT! hit the ceiling above her. She brushed the hair from her eyes and looked up; a wet green spot was on the ceiling, "What? What was that?" Slime dripped from the spot and landed on the floor. She shook her head, "That's been happening every morning since I came here. How does Dan live like this?"

It was now mid-afternoon. Dan had also awoke and while the Ecto-1 was out on calls, the new pickup was pulled into the garage as Dan and Eduardo began conversion work on the vehicle. New decals had come in from the printer as Eduardo applied the Ghostbuster logos to the doors of the vehicle. Dan was under the hood pulling the top half of the engine apart. He was installing new lifters as Egon came down the stairs from the second floor, "Dan, I know you're busy, but we need to talk about something."

"Can I get back to you in about an hour or so?" Dan was using a torque wrench to apply the correct amount of load to the valves. Egon caught him at a critical moment in vehicle upgrades, but he felt this was more urgent, "Daniel, I know you know I never ask while you're in the middle of something, so please hear me out; I need you to stop what you're doing. This is important." Dan relieved tension on the wrench and looked to his superior. Egon looked conflicted, "Please?"

Dan nodded his head. He removed the wrench from the engine and placed it on his tool cart after he climbed down off the truck. The two of them walked up the stairs as Eduardo started unrolling vinyl red/white striped hazard tape to apply it to the truck. Before he started, he looked at the two as they ascended to the second floor.

Time had passed. Eduardo had just finished applying the tape to the driver side of the truck when he heard yelling coming from Egon's lab upstairs, "HE WANTS TO DO _WHAT?!"_

Upstairs Dan had his hands on his head. He took his hands away and formed a half shrug with a look of confused horror on his face, "Why the hell would you agree to something like this? _It's insane!_ Is this some bizzare-ass experiment you're running on him or something?"

Egon was looking down with his hands on his hips. He sighed, "No. It's because he asked me," he looked up to his lead field operative, "He _asked _me, Dan. Pleaded with me." Dan crossed his arms and pinched the bridge of his nose as he felt a headache coming on; engine grease still on his hands now transferring it to his face. Dan didn't notice it until he opened his eyes and noticed the black marks on his hands. He took his hands away from his face and still saw grease on his nose in his peripheral vision, "Do you see what this is doing to me, Spengler?"

Egon grabbed a towel from his lab table and handed it to his employee, him grabbing it and vigorously removing the grease from his face and hands as Egon spoke, "He's not asking for much. He's been acting strange for a few days; since Lita came here. If anything, he's terrified of you doing something to him."

"He's lucky he isn't alive; I'd kill his ass for this."

"That's what I'm alluding to. You need to let him experience this. I know what is likely to happen here, but it's something Slimer needs to learn on his own and know and experience. To my understanding of him, he was never truly… _alive…_ to begin with." Dan stopped scrubbing the grease from his hands and looked to the physicist, "What?"

Egon took a seat at his computer chair as he spoke, "Dan, Slimer is a class 5; he was never a person before. It's possible he was a mass of emotional energies turned amalgamation from a cult that used to operate in the Sedgewick hotel perfoming black masses. After all, a holding company that was owned by Ivo Shandor performed alterations to the hotel at one point causing massive spiritual amplification possibly causing Slimer's… birth, for lack of another word."

Dan had a look of dull surprise on his face, "You have _got_ to be kidding."

"There's no kidding involved," He turned in his chair to place his elbows on the bench and put his head into his hands, "Slimer is essentially a pre-teen at this point in his existence. I wasn't ready for this."

"Egon, despite the fact you're one of the foremost leaders in Paranormal research, there's just some shit you're _not gonna expect._" Egon took his head out of his hands and looked to the younger man behind him, him tossing the now grease-laden towel to the side, "Seeing it's not… _that…_ I think there's worse things…" Dan was having a difficult time expressing something that in turn was not ultimately his decision. He figured it wasn't about that, "I'll talk to Lita about it."

Dayshift had arrived and dropped off the Ecto-1 for the nightshift to start. A few hours passed since the shift began and twilight had began falling on the New York skyline. A few calls had come in as a couple of loaded traps were sitting in the back of the old ambulance. Dan and Eduardo were slightly fatigued at this point from the work they were performing on the new truck early in the day, but Lita was alert as always. Despite Lita being awake and ready, the Ecto-1 pulled to the curb outside of a coffee shop for them to take a break. Dan was driving, Eduardo riding shotgun, and Lita in the back seat. Dan took out $20 and handed it to Eduardo, "Eddie, get us 2 coffees and a green tea for Lita, please. And please, _take your time_."

Eduardo looked to his partner at the wheel, then back to Lita. He knew the score, "Usual signal?" Dan nodded. After Eduardo disappeared into the shop, without even turning back to her, he spoke, "Lita? Can you please come to the front seat?" She stepped out and got into the front passenger door. She closed the door, "What's the matter?"

"Okay, I have this weird situation Egon sotra… cannonballed into my lap. Please don't get mad, but…"

From outside the car, people in the neighborhood walked by ignoring the Ectomobile's presence, that was until… "HE WANTS ME TO DO _WHAT?"_ The woman's voice projected so loud through the old car doors and rolled up windows that people walking by started backing away from the vehicle as they walked past. Lita opened the passenger door and walked out. Dan scrambled out of the driver side door and chased after her, grabbing her by the arm, "Wait, you have to hear me out here."

She pulled her arm free and turned to him, "Hear you out? You're seriously asking me to go on a date with a _ghost!_ What else is there to say?!"

Dan put his head into his hand, "Goddamnit, I _told_ Egon this was an insane idea."

"What is this, one of his experiments or something?"

"I asked him that exact question; no, it isn't," Dan took his head out of his hand, "Slimer supposedly pleaded with him to do this."

"And you _agreed?"_

"I said I'd talk to you about it; just pass on the message. There was one thing Egon told me was set; Slimer will be waiting for you after our shift to talk to him. He'll be in the kitchen on the third floor. Whatever you decide to tell him is up to you, but remember this: Slimer is like a child. He's very simple in the mind and is very sensitive emotionally," Dan looked down to the pavement as he put his hands on his hips, "Egon said he's like a pre-teen at this stage; like a student that fell in love with his teacher. Please," he looked back to her, "don't hurt him."

It was now past midnight. Slimer sat at the dinner table in the kitchen in the dark as he was playing around with one of Egon's broken devices. There was a spring on it. Elbow on table and cheek in hand, using his free hand he kept flicking the spring on the device hearing it make a TWANG sound each time he did. It barely kept him entertained as he was clearly waiting for something, but the look on the ghost's face indicated he wasn't expecting anything to happen. If anything, he had a look of depression on his face as he was about to flick the spring again, but stopped short and just dropped his hand to the table. He moved his hands to his eyes as he started whimpering again.

That was when he heard it. There was creaking of wood-on-wood meaning someone was walking up the lower stairs. After another moment, he started hearing clanking of rubber boot soles on metal as he heard someone walking up the metal spiral staircase. He looked across the kitchen as brown hair tied back into a ponytail poked up from the horizon of the floor. Lita had walked into the moonlight; she still wore her uniform, but she removed the trap rig and folded down the top half of the uniform. She tied the arms of the suit around her waist revealing a black short-sleeved tee-shirt. She stopped short of the table, "You're Slimer, I presume?"

Slimer was stiff with fear. He bit his lower lip and nodded. Lita pulled up a chair and sat at the table across from him. She saw the little ghost was terrified, so Lita started first, "I've been hearing you like me." The ghost nodded very sheepishly, him swallowing hard. Lita averted her eyes as she continued, "I know you know I'm dating Dan. I want you to know that as much as you want to take me out on a date yourself, I can't do that. It would be unfair to Dan because I love him very much; it would be like betraying him," she looked up to the little ghost, "You know what betrayal is, right?"

Slimer nodded his head again. In his heart he knew what he wanted was wrong; not just because he wasn't alive, but for the fact he loved someone that was already in love with someone else. This was the experience Egon felt Slimer needed to have; rejection. It wasn't like the type of rejection Slimer had felt before from people who screamed and ran away, or even when Peter threatened to place him into the containment unit for the 500th time. Slimer needed to know that with some people, their situation and mindset can't - and in some cases, shouldn't - be changed for one's own happiness.

Slimer sniffled a bit as he looked to Lita, pointing to himself as he spoke, "_Hate me?"_ Lita's brow fluttered as she looked to the green ghost, "No, Slimer, I don't hate you! I mean, I just met you. I can't hate someone - or some_thing_ \- I just met," Lita looked reminiscent as she looked away again looking at the table, "When me and Dan were writing he would always talk about you and how you'd always fight with Peter. It always reminded me of my friends Serena and Raye and how'd they go at it," She sighed as she looked back to the ghost across from her, "Now, I can't love you _romantically, _but I would like to love you as a friend. Can we do that?"

Slimer now knew why people hated that line. Still, it was comforting to know this woman didn't want to scream and run away. Sad about the whole ordeal, he lowered his head and nodded. "One more thing; please don't draw anymore pictures. So far this is between me, you, Dan, Egon, and Janine. The others don't have to know, do they?" Slimer shook his head.

"Wait, pictures?" Lita had an inquisitive tone of voice as one word she said came back to her mouth, "Pictures?" Slimer looked up as a look of eureka came to her face. She snapped her fingers, "That's it! Dan was always terrible about taking pictures!" The ghost looked at her and scratched his head, "_Huh?"_

She noticed the ghost was confused. She explained, "When we wrote letters to each other, Dan almost never included pictures of anything. Maybe while I'm here, _you _can take pictures!" Slimer was still confused. Lita realized what Dan said about how Slimer's mental acuity was not-so-sharp. She had to dumb it down a shade, "I want to remember my time here; I'm gonna to be too busy running around to take them myself, and I know how Dan is with it already, so you'd be _perfect_ for the job! Will you do it?"

Slimer looked at the girl; her green eyes shone in the darkness. He was very hurt, but there was this look in her eyes that made him want to reconsider telling her no. After a minute, the ghost hovered up and approached the taller Japanese woman before him. He held his hand out to shake as he looked at her with sad eyes, "_Okay."_

The young woman jumped up and hugged the little green ghost. Slimer's eyes snapped open as she excitedly stated out loud, "Oh, thank you!" She pulled away from him to realize she just covered the front part of her tee-shirt with Slimer's ectoplasm. She saw the slime string in between her fingers as she looked at the green translucent goo, "Ugh, no one told me about _this._"

"_Uh, oh!"_ Slimer was embarrassed for the first time in his existence about his slime, "_Sorry."_ She looked back to the little ghost and smiled a bit, "It's okay; I guess I know why they call you Slimer now, huh?" She patted the class five on the head as she laughed a bit, "You know, green _is_ my favorite color. I'd like to see you around a little more."

Slimer's eyes lit up, "_You do?"_ "Yeah. Friends need to see each other to _be_ friends, right?" Slimer finally smiled with his crooked teeth. Lita kissed the ghost on the forehead; surprisingly enough, she didn't pick up slime on her lips from it. That kiss put Slimer over the moon; he did a sudden flip and flyby of the room from his excitement. Lita giggled a bit as she saw the ghost so happy.

Lita had walked down the spiral staircase Just as she did, Egon walked out of his lab. He caught the woman as she walked to the bunk room, her shirt covered with slime, "Lita?" She turned to him, "Yeah, Egon?"

"Did you two… straighten out… this whole situation?" Egon was having a hard time stating what needed to be stated. He still felt awkward about talking about it.

"Dr. Spengler," she said in mock offense, "A lady _never_ discusses her relationships." She turned her body and stuck her nose up. She looked at the physicist from the corner of her eye and smiled. She walked her way to the bunk room and closed the door behind her once inside. Egon shook his head and leaned against the doorframe, a smirk creeping onto his face, "Why does everyone in this place have to be an unfathomable smart aleck?"


	15. Enter Asatro

Chapter 15: Enter Asatro

Sunday, June 23rd, 2002

80 Centre Street Courthouse

12:17 AM

A paddy wagon was leaving the courthouse; emblazoned with decals and labels stating it was in ownership of the New York County Sheriff. Inside was 3 New York County Sheriff's deputies and a man in an orange jumpsuit. Prisoner 8311 - Joseph "Joey Sack-Of-Nickles" Saculopholus.

Joey had just been found guilty of murdering a cellmate back in Sing Sing penitentiary. Being a "former," hitman for the mob, some things annoyed the old mafioso such as the fact his cellmate had a terrible snore. Sleep apnea, or something. Joey saw fit to fluff the man's pillow - Right on the man's face. Cured the problem quick.

After a while, Joey, looking forward to getting a silent nights sleep at the prison, started boasting the fact despite getting an increased sentence to his already existent sentence, "Maaaaan, it'll feel good to be home! Be nice not to hear that fucker with the diesel-engine snore anymore; not that _I_ did anything. You agree, champ?" He nudged the deputy beside him. Despite being shackled, the hitman made use of his limited mobility. The deputy beside him started to get annoyed, "For a guy who's death sentence just got moved up, you're awfully happy about sleep."

"It's the little things, right?" The hitman looked to the deputy across from him who looked rather nervous. He looked to have just been added to the department and he didn't like being in the back of the wagon with this man. The criminal took advantage of the situation, "What about you, kiddo? Wouldn't you agree takin' a nap before a _dirt nap_ would feel good?" The way the man said, "Dirt nap" brought a look of terror to the young man's face.

The deputy beside the criminal pulled on his shackles and pulled him down, "Look here you piece-of…"

"Hey, knock it off back there!" the driver bellowed, "We'll be there soon enough. Save your energy!"

"Whaddya, know?" the hitman said aloud, "The second smartest man in the van speaks!" The other deputy released the man's shackles from his grip as he looked at the crook; growling, "You're gonna die soon, Sackjob. And I can't wait."

Joey chuckled in a sick way, "Well, I ain't gonna go too soon, Junior; it's still gonna be a least another 2 years on death row before my number is up!" He broke out into a laughter like he just saw a Dan Aykroyd movie; it was beyond disturbing. The two deputies in the back with the man looked to each other. They nodded. The deputy beside Joey then looked to the cab of the truck and looked into the rear view mirror and saw the driver's eyes. The driver looked and saw the deputy looking at him. The Deputy nodded to him, the driver returning it in kind.

A silent agreement had been made.

The wagon came to a stop. There was the sound of a metal door opening as the truck lurched forward again. Something seemed wrong to Joey, "Hey, wait a minute! We can't be back at Sing Sing already; It's only been a half-an-hour!" The truck pulled into the door as the darkness within enveloped the vehicle. Joey watched a dark smile start to come over the face of the deputy next to him. Once all light was blotted out, Joey began screaming in terror.

Somewhere in Staten Island

1:52 AM

It was dark. The moonlight in the sky was close to full as it shines through the windows of a large warehouse in the southwest end of Staten Island. A man came to knock on an office door. A voice called out from behind it; it was female, "What? I'm busy!"

The man recoiled from the sudden harsh response he received. He was dressed in all black none to dissimilar from a priest. He had slicked back gray hair, but looked rather young. He spoke in a hushed, but strong voice, "Madame Holly, the time is upon us; it is time for the offering." The man heard a silence. He could hear glass clanking around in the room as he stood. He spoke up, "Madame Holly?"

He heard a loud sigh from behind the door; the voice spoke more softly this time as as he heard the sound of a cork being removed from a near-empty bottle, "I'll be there. Just get the circle ready."

On the other side of the door, it's occupant heard the man speak in Swedish, "_För gudarna."_ Inside the room, an empty shot glass was placed onto a desk covered with news articles, tabloid papers, and old dusty scrolls. The desk was lit with 5 or 6 lit candles. A near-empty bottle of whiskey poured what dregs of alcohol it contained into the shot glass filling it perfectly. As the glass is lifted from the desk, there was a copy of the National Enquirer under it, it's headline reading, _Ghostbuster Unconscious! Fight With Demon Almost Kills Local Hero!_ The sound of the liquid being swallowed is heard as the shot glass is discarded onto the desk. A dark cloak was then lifted off the edge of the desk as its owner proceeded to put it on and walk out of the door.

Outside, several people walked around a circle in the parking lot of the warehouse. They were all wearing black - normal, but black - clothing as they stood around a large fire that burned on the pavement of the parking lot. The fire was fed with stacks of pallets from the surrounding warehouses. Young, old, black, white… people of all walks joined as they stood around the fire. In the background of the circle was a large boom crane that was turned off at the current moment. The warehouse was in fact two buildings joined together with two separate spaces, and in the middle of the buildings' roofs was a flat walkway going to a platform. The man in the black suit spoke up to everyone as he walked to the podium, "Congregation of Asatro, hear me!" Everyone stopped milling around as they turned to the man on the roof of both buildings, "Please gather around the ceremonial ring!"

Everyone closed their eyes and held hands in a circle as the man made his introduction, "Congregation, your Gydje - Madame Holly." One of the warehouse building's garage doors opened as a cloaked figure stepped forward. She walked to the head of the circle and began chanting in various languages as the sky began to cloud in the summer sky. The sky darkened the light of the moon as the woman raised her hands. At the peak of her chanting, she stopped and started speaking English, "To the faithful of the Gods, I call forth the sacrifice of the Summer Solstice! May our Earthmother, Hel, hear us and take this sacrifice as our offering in exchange for the power to resurrect Baldr in her stead!"

She lowered her hand toward the warehouse door as the two New York Sheriff's deputies halled out Joey. He was still in his prison jumpsuit but was now wearing a military style load bearing vest and a gag in his mouth. He also had a trail of blood running from his head. Joey tried to fight the two deputies trying to holler through his gag. Every time Joey became rowdy, one of the deputies gave him a short hit to the head. She looked to the sacrifice from the darkness of her cloak's hood, "The portal to the Gods has been established! Bring him into the ring!"

The deputies threw Joey down onto the ground. Still wearing his prison shackles, he barely stopped his face from slamming into the pavement of the parking lot. One of the deputies got Joey to his knees as the other walked off to the other end of the ring. The people making up the ring stood and watched as the deputy untied the gag; Joey spitting the rag out of his mouth to assist. He gasped for air as he looked to the cloaked figure approaching him. The woman knelt down to be level with the man. In the moonlight he managed to see the lower half of her face. She wore bright red lipstick; her skin fair.

He looked to her confused. He commented, "What the fuck is this? A witches coven or something? Hey, lady, Halloween isn't for another four months, you might waAAAUGH!" She put one of her black-gloved hands onto his throat and squeezed his Adam's apple. She spoke; the smell of whiskey on her breath, "Look, you drip of sweat off a Dego's ballsack, you have only **one **chance to redeem yourself for what you've done to this world. This is it." She turned and looked at the boom crane and pointed at it with her free hand. It's diesel engine came to life and its lights turned on as the young deputy moved the vehicle's cable down.

At the end of the counterweight of the cable was another smaller cable. The first deputy took the looped end of the cable and passed it through the hoops on the back of the vest. The hoop was then secured with a pin with a rope attached to it. Shortly after, a noose was attached to the crane's counterweight. The woman let go of the hitman and allowed him to be fitted with the noose around his neck. He coughed as he tried to clear the sensation of his throat collapsing to speak, "Hey, lady," he said in a raspy voice, "We've gotta have a way of working this out!"

"Working this out? _Working this out?!"_ She had a level tone of voice, but the intensity was there as she grabbed the noose's knot and tightened it, "You've killed 103 people during your, 'career'!" The voice was smooth and seductive, but the words were beyond terrifying to the hitman, "You have added to the suffering this world had been enthralled in for so long, and for what? Money? Power? The thrill of having another human's life removed from this world by your hand? You will serve in the afterlife of Helheim in one of Her glorious palaces; to atone for your trespasses on the fruitless lifetaking you are famous for." She looked to the crane and pointed up.

The cable pulled taut as Joey was being lifted into the air. Joey was panicking as he was lifted into the sky by the crane, the pavement becoming further and further away. He tried to kick his feet in the air, but his legs only went so far due to the shackles. The people gathering around the fire in the circle once again joined hands as they began chanting. Joey was beginning to cry out as he was raised higher, "Wait a minute! _Wait!_ I'm in the with Bishop family! I can get you whatever you want! I can find _better_ sacrifices than myself!" He continued like this as he ascended.

He was high enough. The woman gave a cutting motion to the crane driver. The crane's engine stopped as Joey was jerked around by the sudden stopped motion of his raising. He looked around him and saw the city in the distance. He looked down and saw the fire burning below him. He started praying.

The woman grabbed the rope coil from the deputy and raised it up in her hand, "May the one who has been trespassed by our lamb step forward and receive his justice!" The deputy running the crane climbed down and walked into the circle. The woman and his fellow deputy stepped back as the young man with the New York County Sheriff's uniform looked at the rope, then looked to the man crying for help in the air. The fear began to leave the young man's eyes as he looked up. He knew exactly what he was doing, "I wouldn't know; _you_ tell _me_ what it feels like to take a dirt nap… _at all!"_

The young deputy pulled on the rope with vigor. The pin was pulled free from the steel cable holding the man up in the air; the cable slipping through the hoops in the vest. Joey Saculopholus careened to the ground from over 50 feet in the air. The people looking on kept chanting. He screamed in terror as the slack in the noose's rope started to run short…

SNAP! The rope pulled taut.

BOOM! Lightning flashed into the ground within the circle.

Joey's feet dangled lifeless above the fire; one of his prison issue footwear falling off and falling below. The shoe hit the ground next to a golden recorder with a dragon-like head on the end that had appeared augered into the asphalt, smoke coming off of it. The chanting continued as the woman approached the flute and pulled it from the ground. Her gloved hands fondled the musical artifact as a sound of surprise came from her red lips, "They have heard us!" She held the flute into the air for all to see. The chanting slowly stopped as everyone's eyes looked upon the golden device in their leader's hand.

4:02 AM

The door to the warehouse office opened as the cloaked woman walked in with the man in black following behind. The man closed the door as he spoke, his gray slicked back hair staying as steady as his voice, "I'm glad that worked; we should have done that on the _actual_ solstace 2 nights ago."

"Did you have doubts, Matthew?" The woman asked as she removed the hood. Revealing herself she was very beautiful with dark brunette hair kept at shoulder length and gray eyes so light they were almost white. She looked at the recorder in her hands as her compatriot walked up behind her, also eyeing up the device in her hand, "I had a few. After all, the Gods are specific; we are at _their_ behest, after all."

"Not always. After all, Gozer, Ares, and Cathulu were stopped." The man placed his hands onto her shoulders as she began to massage her slightly, "Ah, yes; Sumarian trash. People keep believing that Greek Gods and Roman Gods are the same thing. Just because the Ghostbusters stop _one_ they think they have stopped all of them. The Daughter of Loki will be heir to this realm; not some poor sap like Ivo Shandor or that Vigo character."

"Remember, Matthew," she spoke looking over her shoulder, "They've stopped Ragnarok before; Jeremy Whittington envolked a power he was too weak to carry out alone. Among all of us, they can't talk all of us down," she looked back to the flute and her face turned to one of annoyance, "We just don't have one thing; the notes to the Symphony of Destruction. The _exact incantation_ was lost when Wittington and his ugly friend destroyed the scroll."

"Among other unfortunate things."

The woman threw the man's hands off her shoulders and turned to face him, "The only other ones to even _know _would be Spengler and Stantz, and Stantz is selling used cars in Idaho. Pathetic end to the man, but at least he's less likely to oppose us."

"Spengler revitalized their operation," the man turned and walked the office as the woman removed her cloak revealing a white blouse and a skirt, "Even though Spengler may have the vital information we may need, he is also our greatest hurdle; him and his students. The artifact at the museum may be our best alternative."

The woman had put down the recorder, removed her gloves, and grabbed her shot glass. She opened a new bottle of whiskey, pouring another shot, "Don't forget that Shannon that he hired," she lifted the shot glass and gulped the drink down. She slipped the glass from the tips of her fingers to her palm. She seductively rolled the glass in her hand looking at the National Enquirer tabloid on her desk. She picked it up and looked at the photo on the front cover. It was a picture of all 5 field Ghostbusters with a red circle around Dan's face indicating which Ghostbuster the story was about, "I _am _curious how such a man stopped a Draugr by himself," She laughed a bit to herself, slight inebriation causing an almost loose sense of stature as she looked at the tabloid.

The man had come up to her, knocked the shot glass from her one hand, and grabbed the tabloid from the other, "If we're to succeed, you need to get sober; we can't even allow one slip," he held up the tabloid to her face, "These five may mean our death if we're not careful."

"What's wrong Matthew?" the woman asked in an inebriated tone, "Afraid it's the end of the world?" She turned to pick up her shot glass when the man spoke, him putting the tabloid down, "Worse yet, it may no longer be five field agents." She stopped short and stood looking at the man, "What?"

"There's another. I was going to save this until you had _all_ of your faculties, but I guess I have to _force_ sobriety on you!" the man proceeded to reach into his suit jacket pocket and pulled out a small set of Polaroids. It was of a taller Japanese woman wearing a green flight suit with magenta trim in front of the Pottery Barn on 5th Ave. She had brown hair in a ponytail and green eyes, "We don't know much. She came to their headquarters last Tuesday," he handed the photos to her as he continued, "These were taken on Friday. She looks to be training as a trap operator with that Griffin girl. What's more, just a few hours ago, Shannon, Rivera, and this girl were in their company vehicle after Jackson, Miller, and Griffin came back with it. They may have started a night shift."

"Excellent work, Matthew!" the woman said as she eyed the young woman in the pictures, "She looks formidable; this may be _fun_," she looked back to the man in the office, "Scrub the site."

The man bowed slightly as he again spoke in Swedish, "_För gudarna."_


	16. Adversarial Ally

Chapter 16: Adversarial Ally

Sunday, June 23, 2002

Ghostbusters HQ

7:30 AM

Lita was up early. The change in sleep schedule going from a day ahead to a day behind was still playing havoc with her ability to tell time in New York. She had decided to treat the morning crew to something she was otherwise an artist at: She decided to cook breakfast. In the kitchen she put on an apron as she began with something simple that she knew American's liked; Pancakes.

As she prepared, Garrett had rolled into the garage early. He saw Janine at her desk working away on her computer, "Morning, Janine, what's shakin'?" Janine stopped what she was doing and was rather surprised Garrett was at the firehouse so early, "Garrett? You're the early one today."

"Yeah, I was wondering if Egon was available to talk; I think we need to have a conversation about…" He smelled something in the air. It was sweet with a dash of cinnamon, "Say, what's cookin'?"

Janine finally smelled it too, "I donno. It can't be Egon; he would've set the building on fire by now. Can't be Dan either; he usually starts with bacon."

"Not that there's anything wrong with bacon. There's the only thing we have in common," Garrett looked to firepole in the corner in the approximate location of the kitchen, "We both love being carnivores."

He heard Janine sigh, "Garrett, I wish you'd stop saying things like that about Dan."

Garrett turned back to her, "Like what? I didn't even insult him that time."

"No, but you insult him _every other_ time!" Janine put her elbows on her desk as she - like before - rubbed her eyes from behind her glasses, "The man's been through enough. Can't you just make up with him and call your grudge off?"

Garrett turned his chair and sighed, "Janine, it's not as easy as all that." Janine took her hands from her eyes and looked at the wheelchair bound Ghostbuster before her, "It was a Playstation! It was two hundred bucks he already paid you _back_ for! What the hell else do you want him to do; buy out Sony Computer Entertainment for you?" Garrett lowered his head and closed his eyes. He let out another sigh as he felt the anxiety start to rise within him. He turned his chair, "Janine, I'm gonna tell you something; something I never, _ever_ let the others know about." He paused as he worked himself to say it. Janine was worried about what he was about to say. He took a deep breath through his nose then turned all the way to face her, "I have claustrophobia."

There was silence.

After a moment of the two of them looking each other in the eye, Janine responded, "And?"

Garrett blinked in surprise; a twinge of anger rose up inside, "Whaddya mean, 'And'?" Janine realized too late what she just said. It actually was his worst fear. She had to think of a fast way to repurpose the question when something actually did occur to her, "Garrett, it's a common fear people have, but what does this have to do with you being upset with Dan?"

Garrett had stopped a moment and thought about it. He hated to have to say it, but it was there laying in the open. He needed to address something first, "Let me just state that I've spent my life living on the edge. I prided myself on being fearless with nothing to stand in my way. For the others to find out I'm afraid of _anything_ would get the trust I worked for crushed. It was already bad enough what happened after."

"After?" Janine was riddled with confusion. He was starting to make little sense. Garrett turned his chair again and sighed again, a small grunt finishing it off, "It happened 2 years ago about 6 months after he came here. We were on a call…"

May 8th, 2000

6:22 PM

Ecto-1 pulled in front of a building that housed a family restaurant. The headlights of the Cadillac reflected off a black Chevy S-10 pickup with two red and white light bars, red and white hazard tape, and had Ghostbuster logos on the doors and tailgate. Slightly younger versions of Dan and Eduardo came into view of the windshield as Dan walks up to the driver side door where Roland sat piloting the vehicle. They exchanged information as Roland and Kylie stepped out of the vehicle. Garrett tried to hear what was going on through the window, but couldn't. He rolled back to the back of the vehicle and deployed his ramp.

The restaurant was wrecked. One ghost was throwing coffee cups to another that was breaking them with a frozen fish like a very stupid version of baseball. When they ran out of cups, the ghost with the fish started pounding the other counters and tables with it. Dan raised an eyebrow at the situation as he commanded everyone to start their throwers. Trying to blast the pair, they split up and vacated the area. Dan tells the team to split up into two teams with him and Garrett making one team. As the others covered the dining room, the two went to the kitchen.

Fog covered the floor; the freezer door was left open as the people ran away. Dan had instructed Garrett to keep his eyes open, Garrett returning the warning with a smartmouth quip. Dan looked at him as he noticed from behind the wheelchair bound man a kitchen knife levitating in the air. Dan dove and knocked Garrett down as the knife flashed past both their faces. One of the ghosts materialized and grabbed Dan by his pack throwing him across the kitchen into the kitchen's dishwasher. The other one appeared and grabbed Garrett by his uniform lifting him into the air. It unbucked him from his pack causing the nuclear device to hit the floor, fog covering it out of sight.

The first ghost knocked over the freestanding refrigerator and decided it would be funny to shove the Ghostbuster inside. They promptly knocked the food out of it, then shoved the man inside closing the door behind him. They then flipped the unit onto its front trapping the man inside. As they had a good hard laugh, they failed to notice the other Ghostbuster they threw just moments ago stand back up pissed off.

Inside of the fridge, the lack of light and cramped quarters started to make Garrett panic. He turned on his PKE meter; its green display lighting up the inside of his fridge. He laid on the door trying to get a good leverage point to push the bulk of the machine off of him. It wasn't enough. He heard yelling and the proton beams flying around in the opening of the kitchen. The next thing he knew there was an explosion; he felt the whole refrigerator shake as he heard more yelling. He went to try and push the device off of himself again, but with lack of legs, his arms weren't enough to maneuver himself out of the device. He did manage to see one thing once, and only once, he made the door pop open; orange light, the roar of fire, and the smell of smoke came from the small opening in the door. Once the smoke seeped in and reflected the light of the still running PKE meter, Garrett panicked harder and dropped the large, heavy commercial refrigerator back onto himself.

A few minutes had gone by. He was feeling himself running out of air, not that he wasn't consuming more than he needed already scared to death being inside this small box. The heat was becoming unbearable; the refrigeration had stopped some time ago and the insulation of the device was starting to fail. He was fading in consciousness. Fading…

Darkness.

"Next thing I knew, I woke up in an ambulance heading to the hospital. I was told later Kylie got knocked out, too. From what I heard, Dan fired his beam and it hit an exposed gas pipe," Janine watched as Garrett bared his soul. Remembering the inside of the restaurant's refrigerator was making him feel the panic once again, him gripping his chest in stress as the thought crossed his mind, "That son-of-a-bitch caused that fire!" he slammed his free fist into the arm of his chair and he placed his head into his chest-gripping hand, "He almost killed me, Janine!" He looked back up to her with his tear-glossed eyes. He was both scared and angry about it and it reflected in his eyes, "Ever since that day, I _never_ forgave him for that. And after Lita almost blew my head off the other day, I can't trust _her_ either. They're a matching set."

He turned to go to the elevator when Janine stood from her chair and called him out, "Garrett, wait!" The man stopped before rounding the corner to the elevator. He didn't turn, but he listened, "You may be upset about what happened, and you may be upset with Dan, but Lita didn't do it to hurt you. Misfires happen in this job; the beams aren't exactly stable. Don't judge her too harshly, for my sake?" She didn't hear him make a sound. He didn't move. She tried one more thing, "Come on, Garrett. It's not fair to her. Please?"

Garrett tilted his head forward, "You're right; I _am _being too hard on her. I'm just so angry at Dan, I…" the sound of him breathing through his nose was heard, "That means I have to do something I'm not known for."

"I know, Garrett, but the longer we take to apologize, the harder it becomes. The worst that could happen is we lose the chance to, even though we had so much time. Don't do that to them… or yourself." Garrett looked to the team secretary, but then quickly looked away. Head still hung low, he wheeled himself to the elevator.

Lita flipped a pancake out of the pan and on it's uncooked side like a pro. She placed the skillet on the stove as she grabbed two eggs and cracked both open into a bowl. She repeated this move three more times then grabbed the whisk to make scrambled eggs. On the kitchen table was toasted bread, maple syrup, and an already complete stack of pancakes.

The elevator door opened on the opposite end of the floor as Garrett came out. He moved his way toward the kitchen prep area as he watched Lita coordinate a symphony of kitchen utensils and various cooking and serving vessels. She poured the eggs into another skillet then began putting breakfast sausage patties on the griddle. Garrett stopped and watched as the woman gracefully switched between tasks without so much as missing a beat. It was almost like a dance she was doing as she kept working.

She then grabbed the skillet with the now finished pancake and turned to place it on the stack when she saw Garrett sitting there; it scared the life out of her. She dropped the pan on the floor causing the pancake to fall to the floor and a tile on the floor to crack, "Good God, Garrett! You scared me half to death!"

"I didn't mean to," Garrett said with some remorse in his voice, "I didn't want to interrupt the Gourmet Ballet you had goin' there," he looked to the pancake on the floor, "Damn shame, too. You have form to be a Vegas chef from the looks of it."

She saw the crack in the tile as she took the pan from the floor, "Geez! Why do I keep breaking things?" She put the pan in the sink then sat down at the table, soon after putting her head into her hands embarrassed about what just happened, "Things just keep breaking around me! I'm like the one American folk character; what was it? Constipated Jean?"

Garrett raised an eyebrow, "Uh… I think you mean, 'Calamity Jane', and I don't think that's right because you're not a raging alcoholic… At least, you're not as far as I know," He looked to the woman sitting on the table and saw she still had her head in her hands. She spoke from behind them, "Now you're gonna yell at me for _that_ now, too. Maybe you're right," she removed her face from her hands, her eyes glassy from tears forming, "I'm just dangerous."

"Lita…" Garrett saw the woman start to close her eyes as teardrops streaked down her face. He knew it was going to be like ripping a band-aid, "Lita, I was wrong!" She looked to the wheelchaired man before her as he started wheeling himself around to speak more quietly to her, "Lita, I was about to talk to Egon about you. After what happened the other day, I had a severe lapse of judgement and I was about to get you nixed out of here."

Lita looked up and looked at the man directly in the eye, a look of pain on her face, "Why? Why would you do that?"

"This thing between me and Dan…" he closed his eyes as the thoughts of the restaurant fire passed through his mind again, he took a deep breath to suppress the feelings as he looked to Lita with an uneasy look on his face, "I almost made a mistake doing what I was about to do because of how I feel about Dan. If I hadn't talked to Janine first, I might have started the ball rollin' on running you out of here," he turned in his chair as he sighed, "The worst part, I had _already_ made a mistake before this.

"What happened at the Pottery Barn on Friday…" it was becoming difficult for him to say it, but he remembered what Janine said. He took another deep breath, "You didn't deserve that. I imagined you were Dan in that moment and that's why I laid into you like I did. An errant proton beam isn't an uncommon thing in this job; like Janine reminded me, the beams aren't stable. An active microwave can throw the beam in odd directions. What I'm saying is, I overreacted and..." he turned back to the young woman in the apron, "...and I'm sorry."

Lita had a very hurt look on her face. Garrett saw it on her brow as he knew he may have very well made an enemy out of an ally. What he did the other day and how he was about to approach the situation today may have scarred what little friendship the two of them may have had or could have had. He felt regret about the whole thing; the apology he felt wasn't enough, "Lita, can you ever forgi…"

She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him. She clearly forgave him before he could even finish his sentence. She again squeezed someone really hard. Garrett managed to choke out, "Lita, stop; I can't feel my legs!" Lita jumped back into her chair as she backed off, "Oh, God! I'm sorry Garrett, I didn't…" it took her a moment to realize, "...Hey, wait a minute."

Garrett poked his legs, "I didn't lie," he had a big stupid grin on his face, "now did I?"

"Oh, you rotten lil'…" She picked up a pancake from the stack she cooked and threw it in his face. He picked the pancake off his lap, "Hey, that's assault with a deadly pastry!" he threw it back.

Dan had finally woken up and walked up the steel spiral staircase in his shorts and tee-shirt. He saw the two of them throwing pancakes and toast at each other at the kitchen table. He raised both of his eyebrows, "Uh… mornin' guys." The two of them turned their attention to Dan, lowering their foodstuff weapons of choice with looks of guilt on their faces, "You guys planning on eating any of that, or…" he sniffed the air as something drew his attention to the stove, "Lita, Honey, I don't wanna alarm you, but your eggs are burning, and the sausage is on fire." Lita turned to the stove and saw exactly what Dan described. She jumped from the chair, "Oh, crap!"


	17. The First Stanza

Chapter 17: The First Stanza

Sunday, June 23, 2002

Rockefeller State Park Preserve

Mount Pleasant, NY

7:30 AM

New York State Police and New York State Park Police currently find themselves at the foot of a tree looking up. In the early hours of the morning, a jogger made their way around the running path and found an orange-clad individual hanging by his neck from the very tree that police are looking up at this very moment. The New York county coroner and the state park investigation unit are currently cataloging evidence and photographs of what everyone feels is apparent: Suicide.

"Saculopholus didn't get far, did he?" A plainclothes detective looked to the Sergeant on site. The detective was middle-aged with gray growing on his temples offsetting the dark hair he had. Wearing a polo shirt and dress pants, he stopped trying to light his cigarette and looked at the Sergeant, "He managed to get here; right where Mickey DeLaRosa was buried. Must of finally had a guilty mind."

The Sergeant looked to the detective, "DeLaWho?"

The detective finished lighting his cigarette, him speaking from the corner of his mouth "One of Saculopholus's hits," He took a drag and exhaled, removing the cigarette from his mouth, "I recognise the area. They found him face down under a mound of gravel that was to be used for the path going through here. Not one of Joey's best burial plot jobs; it's what got him busted."

"I still don't get it, detective; he took the opportunity to escape the overturned paddy wagon, why come here? Why did he hang himself? Why is he not as bruised as the deputies? Where did he get the rope?"

The Detective got stern, "Look, _Sergeant,_ I'm the one who has to answer these questions; not _you_. Do us a favor and do _your_ job, unless…"

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry!" the Sergeant put his hands up in a halting motion. The detectives phone went off. As he looked at the caller id, he spoke out to the uniformed officer, "I have to take this. Get that piece of shit off the tree." The Sergeant walked toward the tree as the detective answered the phone, "Detective Sheffield." There was a silence as the detective nodded his head.

He finally spoke, "Don't worry, between me and the Captain, we have it under control here," He nodded again, "Yes. _För gudarna._"

Ghostbusters HQ

8:30 AM

Between Dan and Lita, the two of them managed to cook up enough food for not only all the day shift Ghostbusters, but even Slimer. Roland very politely put down his napkin on the table, "That was really good. Thank you for making breakfast for us, Lita."

"Yeah," Garrett chimed in, "the flavor was very _chien mouillé."_ "Garrett," Egon was at the head of the table, "that means, 'Wet dog,' in French." Everyone busted out laughing as Garrett once again had an indignant look on his face, "Hey, I'm still learning! Gonna be takin' French 102 next semester."

"Garrett," Kylie put down her coffee as she looked to the side, "you're not gonna learn anything if you keep sneaking your Game Boy into class."

"Hey, I only got it confiscated twice. I'm doin' good!"

Dan sighed and looked to Lita who sat opposite to Egon, coffee cup in his hand pointing it in Garrett's direction, "You see what I gotta live with here?" Lita was very happy everyone enjoyed themselves, "Thanks, everyone. I know since I got here things went haywire, I figured I'd treat everyone."

Kylie put down her fork as she looked to the woman, "Where did you learn to cook like that? I haven't had breakfast like that since my Grandma Rose passed away." Lita had a look of pity on her face when she heard that, "Oh, I'm sorry…" "It's okay," she tried to stop Lita from apologizing again, "It's been some time since. I'm just saying you're really good at it."

"Well, thank you," Lita looked to her coffee cup as she smiled. Her smile faded quickly as she began to explain, "When I was younger, I was always told I was so tomboyish. It made me self-conscious. I remember my mother always working in her garden and always improving her cooking, so I decided to work on those two things. I really came to enjoy both of them."

"Those Martial Arts skills helps," Garrett looked to the others as he joked, "You should have seen it; the woman cooks like a ninja. She even made her own smoke bombs out of the sausage."

Dan didn't like that, "_Garrett!"_

Garrett put his hands up, "Hey, I'm joking! No need for the stairs!" referring back to Dan's earlier threat.

Dan put down his coffee cup and pointed at the wheelchaired Ghostbuster, "You best mind your P's and Q's, buddy; I might just knock you down a firepole access instead."

Lita was actually laughing a bit to herself at the joke, "It's okay, Dan; body parts don't need breaking today." Dan looked back to Garrett, "You're getting off light."

Roland was sensing way too much tension going on. He helped switch subjects, "So, how far are you getting the truck done?" Dan looked to his second in command, "Well, we got the lights wired and decals on. Got the valves done yesterday. All we have left is the intake manifold, then we can install that Holley Double-pumper," a look of annoyance came to the engineer's face as he looked to the dregs of coffee in his cup, "I wish we could get the 250 shot of nitrous installed, but those parts are a pain in the ass to find in Manhattan."

Dan went to pick up and drink what was left of his coffee when he noticed ripples in his cup. After a second, the whole cup started shaking along with everything else on the table. All the Ghostbusters looked around as suddenly the whole firehouse was shaking. Objects fell off shelves and landed on the stove, floor, and counters of the kitchen.

"What the hell is that?!" Garrett yelled over the rumbling, "Is it the Containment Unit?"

"No!" Roland was covering his head as he stood up, avoiding the plaster that was breaking away from the ceiling, "The alarm isn't going off!"

"Nevertheless, we have to get to the basement!" Egon said as he stood, himself covering his head from the ceiling, "Whatever's going on, we have to check the integrity of the Unit!"

"Egon," Dan called out, "isn't going to the basement during an earthquake a _bad_ idea?"

"Yes, but allowing a containment breach that could wipe out all of lower Manhattan would be a _worse_ idea!" Dan's eyes went wide from that. He looked to Lita, "He's got a point!" he stood as he looked back and forth to her and Kylie, "You two get downstairs and get Janine out of here!" He turned to Slimer who was floating overhead, "Slimer, help Garrett downstairs!"

"Dan," Garrett called out, "I can use the elevator!"

"Do you wanna get stuck in the elevator when it fails?" Garrett just realized what that meant for him and shook his head. From there, Dan looked back to Slimer, "Go! Now!" Slimer saluted and flew down to grab Garrett under his arms as everyone else ran to the nearest firepole. Egon, Dan, and Roland ran to the basement access after hitting the main floor as the women made their way out of the main door.

In the containment area, Egon ran to the main panel next to the large red device as Dan and Roland ran to two different control computers. Dan started typing fast as he accessed the grid monitor, "Jesus Christ! The alignment servos are all over the place!"

"We're getting a power falloff through the main line!" Roland shouted over the rumbling, "I'm activating the backup generator!" The diesel generator in the corner of the basement activated as Egon looked through the viewfinder of the main panel, "The unit's physically holding, but it may not be for long! Dan, activate the laser realignment protocols!"

"That's what I've been doing," he shouted, "the shaking is messing with the optics!" That was when the alarm started sounding. All three men looked to the red light on the containment unit, then to each other. It looked to be all over.

The shaking stopped.

After a few seconds, the lasers inside the unit realigned and the alarm disengaged; the light switched from red to green. The unit was safe. All three men kept looking at each other as the events played out. Dan checked his monitor, "Laser grid reestablished. Grid integrity holding," he took a deep breath as he leaned against the desk, "And here I was afraid of living by the Dresden Nuclear Power Plant. This thing is under me when I sleep."

"What _was_ that?" Roland asked confused, "I don't remember earthquakes being a thing in New York." "They're not," Egon responded, "and it makes he wonder," he walked to the work bench opposite of the unit and picked up a PKE meter. He turned it on and it screeched at high yield, "Oh. My. _God!_" Egon had a 1,000 year stare as he looked at the device in his hand. The look on the man's face scared Roland and Dan.

Outside, Janine, Kylie, and Lita stood. The earthquake had all their hearts racing. Slimer came out last with Garrett in his arms. The little ghost was panting hard as he carried the man outside, putting him down on the curb. Slimer then hovered down and sat on the curb alongside the parapalegic Ghostbuster and made an attempt to calm himself down, "_You heavy!"_

"Hey, it's all that upper arm muscle you gain from being in a wheelchair." Garrett looked around and saw some of the buildings had large cracks and pieces missing from them, "Good God! The whole island must of been rocked."

Janine looked to the outside of the headquarters and saw practically no damage, "It's a good thing Egon and the guys reinforced the firehouse after the original Containment Unit exploded. This whole place would have fell in on us otherwise."

Down the street they saw a familiar face wearing a familiar leather jacket round a corner. Eduardo was running his way to the firehouse stopping short of the group, doubling over to breathe, "_Dios bueno_, the whole neighborhood is nuked!"

"Eduardo?" Lita looked to the man and found blood coming from his lip when he looked up to speak, "What happened to you?" He stood up, still breathing heavy as he spoke, "I was… on the bus… everything was shaking. Next thing I know... the bus nosedived into a hole in the road. I just ran three blocks!"

"Eduardo," Kylie walked up and examined the cut on his lip, anger in her voice, "you shouldn't be walking around like that after a vehicle accident, let alone running! What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking, 'Oh shit, the Containment Unit is gonna blow! I better get to the base!'" Eduardo had an extreme look of annoyance on his face as he stated that out loud. It was a statement that perplexed everyone present, with the exception of Lita. Kylie had a look on her face of not just confusion; she actually looked to be… impressed, "Eduardo?"

"Look, Dan's told me multiple times the Containment Unit is like a nuclear reactor. You treat it nice, it stays nice. You treat it bad… well…" he rubbed the back of his neck as he didn't want to say it, so he found a good analogue, "You'd best pick up 'Change Of Address' forms on the way out of town."

"Luckily that's not gonna happen today," everyone turned to the main doors and found Dan and Roland stepping out, Dan speaking aloud, "The Containment Unit's stable, and the building is intact. Uh… Egon has an announcement to make. Everyone…" Dan looked back to the door then back to the group. He was as pale as a sheet of paper. He didn't like what he had heard. All he could do is look to Lita with apologetic eyes. Without saying anything more, he turned and walked inside. Roland also looked just as uneased by the event and followed behind.

The looks. There was a sea of them amongst the Ghostbusters outside along with their secretary and their live-in experiment ghost friend. Everyone followed their peers into the firehouse, Garrett again being lifted by Eduardo and Lita into the building.

Madame Holly. It was a name given by herself to herself as an avatar. What few do know of her would follow her to the end. She was in fact someone of a different identity. Inside an office with sunlight now shining dimly through the blinds, she sat at her desk with her feet on it with the golden recorder in her hand. She had felt the massive tremors from inside her office. She held the recorder in her hands as she looked to it with fascination, "Oh, wow. Talk about feeling _alive_ with anticipation!" She looked to the mouthpiece; her bright red lipstick lightly coating the end of the musical instrument. She took her high heels off the desk as she looked at an old - very old, upon closer inspection - scroll on her desk. It was written in runes.

A knock came from her door. She quickly put the scroll and the recorder into a drawer as she answered, "Yes?"

"Ms. Bautista?" She heard a man speaking through the door. The voice sounded frightened and haggard, "We're sorry to bother you, but we have a huge nightmare out here! We need to talk!"

As she closed the drawer of her desk, a smirk came to her face knowing full well she'll need to lose it before she left the office. She composed herself, "Okay. I'll announce it on the PA in a few moments. Just stand by." She took a deep breath as she heard the footsteps walk away from the door. After a moment of silence, she opened a different drawer and pulled out her bottle of whiskey. She poured a shot out in her glass, then put the bottle back. As she went to grab the glass…

_You know what you're doing is…_

Before she could hear the sentence complete, she grabbed and downed the shot. She grimaced as the bitter alcohol flowed down her throat. The burn drowned out the voice as she took a moment. She placed the back of her hand that was holding the shot glass against her forehead as she closed her eyes and sighed. After the moment passed, she put down the glass and picked up the phone. She pressed the building-wide PA, "Attention all Stoneface Employees…"


	18. Jeremy

Chapter 18: Jeremy

9:13 AM

Ghostbusters HQ

Egon stood in front of Janine's desk. The end of the earthquake rattled a good number of nerves on the team except Lita; earthquakes was a way of life in Japan, so she was somewhat unaffected. The near-containment breach was a different affair. What Egon had just told them was ever worse, "Wait a minute, Egon," Kylie had a deep sense of dread in her voice for what she was about to ask. She looked down a moment before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. She looked to her professor, "are you telling us that not only this has happened before, but there may be no way… _to stop it?"_

Egon Spengler - pioneer of paranormal research - co-inventor of the Ecto-Containment system and Proton Packs - savior of mankind several times over - had a look of dread that matched his student's sense, "Yes. This happened once before many years ago. Kylie, since you have read the files, this may be familiar to you; the Jeremy Whittington incident."

Kylie put her hand over her mouth and backed up in terror. Dan also had a look of terror on his face, "Wait a fucking minute! You said that name before!"

Egon was taken aback by his team-lead's statement, "I did?"

"At Starlight Tower! You mentioned it after the meter exploding when Venus was possess…" he caught himself. Lita looked at him holding her breath. Dan quickly corrected his speech, "That actress chick, whatever-the-fuck-her-name-is Venus woman. You said that man's name before. Who the _hell _is Jeremy Whittington?"

"Jeremy Whittington almost ended the world, Dan," Kylie turned to him as she spoke, a grim tone of voice coming from the team occultist, "He got ahold of an artifact that allowed him to play the Symphony of Destruction. He almost completed the song and put an end to things."

"Do you remember when there were massive title waves and storms that destroyed everything back in the mid-80's?" Dan turned to Egon as he asked. Dan searched back in his mind, "Yeah. I was almost 11. I remember there was this _huge_ tornado that I would have sworn ripped Chicago apart. I never saw any of the damage the next time my family went into the city."

"Jeremy was convinced to reverse what he had done. What we felt today, and the readings I just took, emanate the same psychokinetic signature as when Jeremy attempted to end the world in Ragnarok," Egon closed his eyes and hung his head, his hand coming to the bridge of his nose as he tried to hold back his headache, "What I don't understand is, why?"

Roland spoke up, "You don't think this Jeremy is trying to end the world again, do you?"

"No," Egon looked back up and put his hand down, "The reason he did it was because his girlfriend at the time turned down a wedding proposal. _His_ proposal. After what happened, things were different."

"Okay," Dan shook his head in annoyance, "I'm getting confused with the vague bullshit here, Egon," the blonde engineer put his hands on his hips and looked Egon right in the eye, "What the fuck are you saying?"

"He cast an incantation that gave him the recorder; He was right at the end of the final stanza when a friend of his and his girlfriend convinced him to stop what he was doing. His friend DyTyllio saved Jeremy's girlfriend Cindy from falling off the Karstick Building, himself almost falling off."

Dan had a look of terror on his face as it sunk in what that meant, "Wait a minute…" Lita knew it, too, "So what you're saying is: You didn't stop him."

Egon sighed, "Correct, Lita. DyTyllio hung onto the edge of the building. Jeremy went to pull him up, but he refused his help. That's what convinced Jeremy to stop and reverse the damage done. We couldn't stop what was happening; our Proton Packs had no affect on him, or the creatures he summoned. It was the only ace-in-the-hole, as Venkman would put it, we had to stop the destruction."

Everyone in the room tensed up as they heard that. There was still one lingering thought in his mind, so Garrett asked it, "You said you don't think it was Jeremy. Why?"

"Him and DyTyllio destroyed the last direct copy of the incantation used to summon the recorder. They did it shortly before him and Cindy got married. Any other knowledge that's left is only known to Jeremy, DyTyllio, Ray, and myself."

"That's unless," Roland looked to everyone else, then back to Egon with a very worried look on his face, "someone else knows."

"That's what I mean. Dan, Lita, Eduardo, you're going to go to his home and try to get answers. Last we heard, they're still living at her home at 427 South 15th Street. We haven't spoken with them in a while, but our answers would start there."

"I just hope they don't end there," Dan ran his fingers through his hair as he sighed, "Alright, that means we'd better get to work on the truck. Ecto-1 is gonna be tied up," Dan turned to Eduardo. The man had a paper towel to his lip the whole conversation. He looked to his co-pilot, "Eddie, you gonna be okay to work? You don't need a doctor or anything?"

The latino Ghostbuster removed the towel from his lips before he spoke, "I'll be okay, man. I might need some Tylenol, but I'm okay." Dan placed his hands onto his hips as he addressed his oft passenger, "Okay, but don't do anything that's gonna strain yourself, okay? I don't need you keeling over for some dumbass reason," he looked to Lita, " I don't know how much you've worked on cars, but we're gonna need help. Up for it?"

Lita look to him. She wasn't sure if she could, but she knew there was a lot at stake. She nodded her head, "I'll do what I can."

Several hours passed. The doors of the firehouse opened as the front grill of the F-150 poked out of the door. The sound of the engine starting rumbled the neighborhood. The truck lurched forward and pulled into the cracked street. People of all kinds cleaning up after the earthquake turned as the black pickup truck rolled into the street.

The yellow beacon light on the top was replaced with a red and white Whelen Edge 9000 light bar, upgraded spotlights on the bumper sporting a safari bar, and spotlights on a rear roll bar in the bed. The vehicle revved a thunderous rev; the 7.5L engine causing people to back away.

Inside the cab of the truck was Dan, Eduardo, and Lita in the driver, passenger, and back seats respectively. The looks the truck received put something of a smirk on Dan's face, "Everyone ready?"

"Yeah," Eduardo replied as he clicked his seatbelt, "Just don't put us in a ditch; already had that happen once today."

"Look at these people," Lita saw the people in the Tribeca neighborhood staring at the truck, "it's like they've never seen a truck before."

"Oh, they ain't seen _nothin'_ yet," Dan put the truck into first gear and activated the siren and lights, "Yippee-Ki-Yay!" Dan dropped the pedal and spun the tires. The vehicle lifted slightly in the front as the vehicle rolled down the street, "Whoa, this truck is whiley! Putting that diesel engine turbo in here might have been a bridge too far!" The tires hooked as it took off down the road. Dan cut the wheel and drifted around the corner, "Next stop: uptown!"

427 South 15th Street. The truck pulled just outside of the house as Dan pulled the truck out of gear. It looked well kept, "Not a bad place," Eduardo said aloud as he looked toward the front. Dan turned off the engine and set the parking brake, "Yep. Alright, everyone, mind your matters." Dan opened his door and stepped out. Eduardo followed allowing Lita to push the seat forward and exit herself. They stood before the steps to the door.

Eduardo looked to the sidewalk and noticed writing in the concrete, "Hey Dan, check this out!" Dan looked down and found the original Ghostbusters signatures along with a crude drawing of the Ghostbusters logo in the cement. It was dated 1986, "From what Kylie told me, this must of been where Egon's meter exploded." Lita had made her way to the stairs, placing a foot onto the bottom step, "Come on, guys. The sooner we get this over with…" Dan and Eduardo looked to her. Dan sighed as he nodded his head. Dan walked up the stairs ahead of everyone and raised his hand to knock on the door…

The door opened to have a woman in her early-to-mid 40's gasp in a start standing in the doorway. It surprised her to see the three Ghostbusters standing there, "Oh, good heavens!" She placed a hand on her chest, her blonde hair waving about with her body motions. Dan put down his hand as he did a small jump back, "Dah!" He put his head into his hand trying to suppress the surprise he just felt, "Geez, I'm sorry!"

The woman looked back up as she got her bearings, "Goodness, I wasn't expecting anyone here today," she looked to the crowd on her front stoop, "Can I help you?" Dan had finally got himself in order as he took his head out of his hand, "Yes, are you Cindy Whittington?" The woman cocked her head to the side, "I am?"

"We're scientists," Eduardo stepped up a bit and spoke, "We were wondering if we could talk to Jeremy." Dan turned to him and gave him a look. Eduardo saw it and saw that Dan didn't like the way he asked. He quickly turned back to the woman of the house, "We're Ghostbusters, Ma'am. Dr. Spengler sent us. Look, I'm sorry if this is a bad time…"

"No, no," the woman had a look of sadness in her eyes as she looked down, "it's okay. Now would be the best time. Please, come in." She stepped away from the door and opened it wider for the three paranormal investigators to walk in.

The house was brightly lit. It was a bit disheveled. It looked part because of the earthquake that happened earlier that day, but also because there looked to be a young child living their as well. As the team entered the house, they saw a young boy of about 8 years old playing with legos on the floor in front of the couch. Cindy had closed the door behind them and came to the head of the group to talk, "Can I get you anything? Something to drink?"

"Uh, no, that's okay," Dan started as he looked to his host. Even in her older age, the woman before him was still radiant, but had signs of sadness and pain on her face. Something was bothering her and it started from the moment the team arrived, " I hate to have to rush this, but we need to talk to your husband right away."

"Wow!" They heard the kid behind them, "You guys really the Ghostbusters?" The team turned to the boy as he looked up to them, "Mom always told me you guys were friends of her and dad's!" Lita turned to the boy and kneeled down to talk to him, an almost motherly personality coming forth from her, "Hey there, lil' fella, what's your name?"

"I'm Scotty Whittington! I know you guys!" the kid pointed to the two male members of the team, "You're Dan Shannon and Eduardo Rivera! I see you guys on the TV and internet all the time!" he turned to the one female member of the team, "I haven't seen you before. You're not Kylie, are you?"

"No, goofy!" Lita said as she roughed up the kids hair playfully, "My name is Lita Kino. I'm new to the team."

Scotty eyed her up. He seemed almost perplexed looking at the woman, "You're awfully pretty to be a Ghostbuster." Lita blushed at that. Cindy could clearly see the Japanese woman turn red from her own kid's comment, "Scotty, honey?" "Yeah, mom?" "Clean up your legos and get ready to go; we'll be late otherwise."

The kid became excited, "We're gonna go see him?! _Yes!"_ The kid scrambled back in front of the couch and grabbed his small amount of lego bricks. He then ran back toward the stairs and ran up them, his bedroom door closing with a slam. Lita watched the kid run by in a flash, "Hyper lil' guy, isn't he?" Once the door slam was heard, Cindy kept looking toward the stairs. She sighed, "We almost lost him," she turned to the others in the room with her as she spoke, "Scotty was born a month premature. Poor Jeremy stayed in the hospital with me and him every waking moment. I never saw a man so intent on staying behind to watch his son; he almost got arrested when he started fighting with Hospital security. It took DyTyllio almost an hour to talk the officer down from arresting him."

Dan looked to the floor avoiding eye contact. It got rather awkward quickly, "That's, uh… surprising, considering what I know of him. Look, Mrs. Whittington…" "He's not coming back." Dan looked up to find her with her head down and her eyes closed. He examined her body language. He shook his head, "Oh, don't tell me…" She looked up to the three Ghostbusters with tears in her eyes. She clearly felt pain about what had happened.

Jeremy Whittington was dead.

"It happened two years ago. We were at the park with Scotty when another kid's ball got loose and bounced in the street. A little girl ran after it and into the street. After what happened with him trying to end the world, he became a different person. He ran into the street and pushed her out of the way of a speeding delivery van…" She started crying as she turned away. After a moment of everyone looking at each other, Eduardo walked up to her and placed a hand onto her shoulder.

She looked at the hand and then looked to the young hispanic man. There was a look of sympathy in his brown eyes as he spoke, "My father was a cop; NYPD. One night a kid much like your son ended up taken hostage during a robbery at a 7-Eleven gone _loco_. My dad went in the back way to the store and managed to get one of the guys in the leg, but he was left with the one guy holding the kid. Guy had a record; even had done time for murder. Why he was back on the street, we'll never know. Guy used the kid as a shield. Dad was all alone and had no backup outside of his partner outside. He put his gun down and pleaded for the kid to be let free."

Dan and Lita listened as Eduardo told Cindy the story. He sighed hard, "Son-of-a-bitch shot my father in the chest." Dan closed his eyes as a look of sorrow came to his face. Lita looked as though she understood his pain; her father passing away as a child. Eduardo looked at Cindy in the eye as his story came to an end, "I knew that kid; to this day he blames himself for it. Good men do things that are bad for them. Sometimes they make mistakes," Eduardo looked to Dan, "but you have to know, sometimes, they're just hurt," Eduardo looked back to Cindy, "I don't know much about your husband, but I can tell you this; he was a good man doing what he did."

The whole situation took an awkward and unexpected turn. Everything that Dan had feared had happened; they hit a dead end at the beginning of the investigation. Him and Lita exchanged looks then looked to the two before them, "Look, we're sorry to have disturbed you, Mrs. Whittington; it wasn't our intention to upset you. We'll just show ourselves out. Eduardo?" Dan and Lita turned to the door as Eduardo looked back toward them, then back to Cindy with his sympathetic eyes. He looked down as he spoke, "We're sorry. You try to have a better day."

The Ghostbusters turned and walked toward the door. They figured they'd best find a new lead now this one had closed up. Cindy turned and watched as they approached the door. If only she knew _anything_ Jeremy knew about the past that would help them. If it likely had to do with the earthquake that happened today… "Wait! Please wait!" The night team stopped as they turned to her, "Their might be someone who would know what you're looking for, if I'm to assume why you're here."

Lita was the first to ask, "Wait, with Jeremy gone, who else would…" Before she could finish her question, little Scotty ran down the stairs with his shirt removed holding two shirts, one in each hand, "Hey, mom? Which shirt do you think Uncle DyTyllio would like, the Pokemon shirt," he held up the red one in his left hand, "or the Mario shirt?" he held the white one in his right hand up.

The blonde haired woman looked to her son and looked at the shirts in her son's hands. She pointed to the red shirt, "Oh, the Pokemon one. After all, he got you that one for your birthday; he always loved seeing you wearing it." "Thanks mom! Hey, you okay?" The little boy's look changed to one of concern, "Are you crying again?"

"No, Scotty," the woman said, using her hand to wipe the tears from her eyes, "I'm okay. Now, go get dressed." The little boy ran back upstairs and closed his door again. Dan had a look of surprise, "DyTyllio! That's right, Egon said he'd know! Where is he?"

"Well, we were about to go visit him in the hospital…"

"Hospital?" Dan asked, "Did he get hurt in the earthquake?"

"No. You see, he's… Well…" Cindy turned and grabbed a picture from a nearby table. She handed it to Dan, "You see, DyTyllio has a medical condition," Dan looked at the picture and found a small malformed man holding a much younger Scotty on his lap. He had one eye that didn't look straight and an unusual complexion, "Because of his small form, his organs are outgrowing his body. The thing that's specifically harming him is Cardiomegaly; his heart is enlarged. Unfortunately, the doctors say it's terminal."

Eduardo looked over Dan's shoulder and looked at the picture, "Yikes!" Lita walked up to see the picture herself and saw what he saw. She instantly got offended and smacked him in the back of the head, "Eduardo!" Dan looked to her, "Don't do that! You'll kill whatever brain cells he has left!"

Eduardo rubbed the back of his head, "I'm surprised the kid ain't afraid of him."

"Why should he be?" Cindy asked offended, "DyTyllio help me and Jeremy raise him!" She approached the hispanic man in her home and pointed a finger in his face, "Jeremy saved his life many years ago, and in turn DyTyllio saved mine! Without him, this world would have been destroyed! It doesn't matter what he looks like, that man is a sweet soul and a member of this family! Don't you _ever _insult his appearance again!" Eduardo backed into the front door. He put up his hands in a halting gesture as he tried to get a word in edgewise, "Look, I-I didn't mean it like that! I'm sorry!"

"Is this why you always tell him not to talk?" Lita asked. "I try," Dan responded, "It doesn't always work as you can clearly see," Dan approached Cindy and placed a hand onto her shoulder, "Mrs. Whittington, we need to speak with him. If he has an idea - _any_ idea - of what Jeremy knew and what he had researched, it'll tell us what happened today."

Cindy had lowered her finger from Eduardo's face and turned to the Ghostbuster behind her. Her anger had melted as she looked into the man's eyes. Dan had a look of grave concern on his brow as she looked into her eyes. She may not have known the people in her home personally, but she knew the Ghostbusters of old and trusted them. If these three were sent by Egon… "Yes, of course you can." Although Dan had not asked permission, Cindy knew the extent of the danger New York, and the world as a whole, faced if it had to do with the power Jeremy had once commanded; she knew DyTyllio was the only answer.

Scotty had ran down the stairs with his red Pokemon shirt on also wearing his backpack, "Okay, mom! I'm ready!" Everyone looked to the little boy and saw how excited he was. The boy truly loved the small deformed man his father had saved some many years before his birth. Dan once again looked at the picture frame in his hand and saw how the family had lived this whole time. He unfolded the frame support and placed the picture back onto another table, "Sometimes, you tend to forget how important people are to others lives; they can sometimes be family without the blood."

"We were about to take the bus to Gracie Square…" Cindy had begun.

"Nonsense," Dan interrupted her, "We'll take my truck there. Eddie," he turned to Eduardo who still stood at the door, "You'll have to ride in the back with Lita." "I don't want to impose!" the woman began to protest.

"We can ride in Lucky Black?!" the boy said happily, "Alright!"

Dan had a grimace of pain grace his face, "Uh, I'm no longer driving _that_ truck." The kid clearly didn't know the S-10 Xtreme that took the moniker of Lucky Black was destroyed nearly a week before. As a matter of fact, Dan hadn't even given a name to the new vehicle and was siding on not naming the new truck the same thing.

Everyone stepped out of the house, Cindy locking the door behind everyone. Scotty looked at the new pickup and gawked over its massive size, "Holy moly! This thing is huge! This is even _better_ than Lucky Black!" Dan stood at the foot of the staircase handing the keys to Lita for her to open the doors of the truck and let their passengers in. Eduardo was bringing up the rear. As he began to walk toward the truck, Dan stopped him, "Eddie, can I ask you something?"

Eduardo stopped and turned to Dan, "Yeah, what's up?"

"That story you told; that kid you know who was…" Dan was having a hard time finishing his sentence. Eduardo knew what he meant, "Yeah?"

"Is he…?"

Eduardo sighed hard and looked to the ground, "It was Carlos." Dan winced hard as he placed a hand on his partner's shoulder. "He was riding along with my dad that night. They stopped at the 7-Eleven while it was being robbed. My dad and his partner were in the middle of doing paperwork in the squad out of sight of the window while Carlos went in to use the bathroom. My brother blames himself for putting our dad into that position. That's how it all happened."

Dan stated with remorse, "No wonder he's so gung-ho about police work."

"That's not the worst of it," Eduardo looked up and looked to Dan, "The reason he was trying to get Kevin into the youth training academy…" he averted his eyes, "...is because I dropped out of the criminal justice courses I was enrolled in. That's why he hates me for being a Ghostbuster."

Dan understood. Dan's brother was in the military; Marine Corps. Even though his brother was a computer programmer, he went into the Corps. to become a communications expert using the GI Bill to further his study. His brother looked at him almost the same way because Dan had pursued electronic engineering which was considered an idiot's field of technological involvement. All Dan had in terms of work potential was repairing toasters thanks to the market. Being a man of practicality, Dan's brother didn't believe in ghosts, either. When Dan mentioned his employment with Ameritech, he had more respect for him then when he was a Ghostbuster.

"Eddie, I'm sure he doesn't hate you. If anything, he just thinks you've wasted your potential," Eduardo looked to Dan with a look of annoyance on his face. Dan wasn't finished; he knew he needed to explain, "I'm not saying you wasted it, either. He looks at Ghostbusting as a snake-oil salesmen position; we're all, 'Stand-up Philosophers,' as Mel Brooks puts it."

"'Stand-Up Philosophers'?" the Latino asked, eyebrow raised.

"You know; Bullshit Artists."

"...Oh."

"Look, what I'm getting at is - now that I know what happened - Carl feels guilty for what happened to your dad. Explains why every time I've seen you two together he has to mention you… Well…" "Disrespecting my father's memory?" Eduardo had this pained expression on his face. Dan knew why his brother always said it now, "...Yeah. If anything, your brother is just projecting because he can't shake the feeling of guilt. He's just trying to run away from his issue. You need to stop letting yourself feel bad because you stopped those studies; you see how it's killing him inside, so you don't want that life." Eduardo's eyes opened wide as he realized what Dan was saying. He looked to his leader, partner… and friend… and realized Dan understood the situation better than he wished to.

Dan looked to his friend and conveyed one last thing before they proceeded to the truck, "If there's one thing I can tell you now knowing your family background, it's this: You are _not_ wasting your potential. I've seen it from you a few times, and it's that you have the capability to be a very good investigator. Maybe even the best. After all, Ghostbusters are Paranormal _Investigators_; using that skill considering your background is absolutely _vital_ to our work. Don't make Carl make you think you wasted any of that skill." With that, Dan put a friendly arm around Eduardo and started ushering him to the truck's driver-side door, "Come on, we have a couple of people to help out here."

Once inside, the vehicle roared to life. Dan slowly crept the vehicle forward as they drove down the street toward Gracie Square Hospital.


	19. The Last Thread

Chapter 19: The Last Thread

The final crews had finally left the warehouse for the day. Madame Holly walked the floors of the concrete storage facility she owned with her purse on her shoulder as she looked at the damage the building sustained. She looked to the floor and found some of the blood that was under a fallen girder. The blood had blackened on the lime that laid the floor. She walked the floors of the masonry with no protective gear on; the machinery used for the various processes to make the companies products available to the public had been shut down. She looked at the blood, knelt down, and then looked to the girder.

Someone had to be taken to the hospital. She was having this odd sense of conflict within her about the days events. She did cause the earthquake after all, but she was feeling… odd about it. The worker that was hurt had a clean record for both work safety and professional conduct. She started to feel a terrible sense come on. Her heart started to pump ever so much quicker as the feeling started to creep up her spine.

She felt flushed. She put her hand to her temple and closed her eyes. She quickly stood as she moaned.

"_He had a family. You did, too."_

"Shut up!" the woman yelled out.

"_Things don't have to be this way."_

"They're never gonna be the same as they were!" she yelled to the darkness. Her voice became more soft, "Especially after what I did."

"_True,"_ the voice spoke, "_but you know this isn't how..."_ Holly had taken out a flask from her purse, and took a swig of whatever was inside. Once again, the voice had gone silent. The creeping feeling she had crawling up her spine had subsided as well. Taking her free hand she put her hand onto her forehead, breathing slowly as she could. She took a deep breath as she spoke, "I can't go back," a tear escaped her eyes. She quickly cleared them from her eyes as looked to the greater spaces of the warehouse, "I can't go back. No one will forget it."

"Forget what, my Gydje?" Holly turned around to find Matthew standing behind her, quickly placing her flask into her purse. Matthew - silver hair still slicked back as the night before - stood before his priest with a look of confusion on his face. She quickly looked away from him as she made an attempt to regain her composure, "I played the First Stanza, as you most likely know. From here, we have to continue forward," she looked to her second as she started speaking again, "Have you found the Second Stanza?"

"Yes, Madame Holly," the man spoke with a level of even temperament, "but there is a great deal of guard being placed on the Museum awaiting the reveil, so it'll be some time before we can get the Final Stanza. It won't be like the New York Community College where that incompetent Draugr destroying the gymnasium alerted a great deal of people to the situation. Not mentioning the rampage he caused going for the third relic."

"I asked about the Second Stanza, Matthew," the woman growled, "what about _that_ Stanza?"

"As I said," a small amount of worry in his tenor, "we found it. There is a complication."

"_Complication?_" the brunette's gray eyes began to burn holes into the man. He didn't like the look or the tone of voice. Nevertheless, the man stood firm before her, "Yes. Come to find the previous owner of the scroll that contains the spell… had transported the scroll into a separate dimension several centuries ago." Holly's eyes had narrowed. She took the flask from her purse again as he continued, "The only way to obtain the scroll is by an old tome which contains the incantation in which to get it back."

Holly opened the top of the device and took a drink. The annoyance was starting to etch into her face hard as she looked at him, "And who has the tome?"

Gracie Square Hospital

5:46 PM

Dan, Lita, and Eduardo stayed in the guest waiting area as they waited for Cindy and Scotty to pay their visit. The hospital was in chaos from all the injuries that the earthquake caused that day, so the three Ghostbusters stayed out of the way of the hospital staff the only way they could. Lita was especially unnerved about the building. She sat fidgeting in her seat as though she didn't want to be there. Eduardo had a cup of coffee in his hand as he looked out the window of the room, "Man, I hate these places," he took a sip of the bitter hot drink, face twisting into a look of disgust. Soon after he dropped the paper cup into the trash can, "Mostly because they make crap coffee."

"What ya want?" Dan responded, "Shit's liquid concentrate. It's just a slurry made of instant coffee crystals with very small amounts of water."

Eduardo turned toward his fellow Ghostbuster, eyebrow raised, "Okay, why is it you know these things?"

"I used to fix different kinds of coffee makers before I worked here the first time," the man stood from his seat, "That crap was a nightmare to clean up after it dried in the tubes." Dan looked to Lita who was actively biting her nails. Using his link with her, he felt something was deeply wrong. He had always suspected Lita could turn on and off their empathic link when she wanted to be alone, but he always theorized if she was in extreme distress it would establish a link without her input. He was sensing her being stressed out, "Lita, you alright?"

Lita looked to the man before her. She quickly averted her eyes and pulled her fingers away from her mouth. The sudden action caused her to blush again, "I hate hospitals."

Eduardo responded crassly, "You and me both, _chica._" Dan looked to his partner, "Eduardo?"

"Yeah, Dan?"

"Shut up."At that moment Cindy had walked into the waiting room and looked to Dan, "Mr. Shannon?" He looked toward her as the others came to his side, "Yeah?" "DyTyllio's ready to talk. Come with me." She turned to leave. Dan looked to the others then started forward following. They walked the halls a short distance until they reached the room. Cindy stopped short of grabbing the door handle, then turned to the Ghostbusters, "Understand, his condition is rather advanced. Please try not to upset him."

"Mrs. Whittington," Dan started, "I can't guarantee I won't. From what Egon told us…" he couldn't finish the sentence. He didn't have to. Cindy sighed, "I know." She cracked the door open. Inside, Scotty was sitting in a chair beside a lone hospital bed. In the bed was a short disfigured man with white hair. The two of them were playing on two linked Game Boys; sounds of Pokemon echoing around the room. Cindy called out, "Scotty, Honey?"

"Hold on, mom," the boy called out. He had not once glanced away from his Game Boy's screen, "We gotta duel goin' on here!" Dan looked over the woman's shoulder, then looked back to Eduardo, "Geez, it's like you and Garrett when the call alarm's going off." "What's that supposed to mean, man?" Eduardo crossed his arms in indignance. "You start that damn PlayStation, you two tune everything else out."

"Scotty!" The woman became firm. The boy looked away from the game to his mother. He saw the look on her face and knew, "Sorry, Uncle DyTyllio."

"Oh, that's okay, Scotty," the older man said in a mildly British accent, "Go on; we'll continue again another day." The boy looked to him and nodded his head. He took the cable along with his Game Boy and placed them in his backpack before heading toward the door. Before leaving the old man's side, he turned back and hugged him, "I love you, Uncle DyTyllio."

Lita saw that and placed her hand over her mouth. The scene was severely distressing her. Dan's empathic sense went off again as he immediately looked at her, "Lita, what's wrong?" She backed up and looked as though she was about to cry, hand still over her mouth. She shook her head and ran back toward the waiting room. Dan called out after her softly, "Lita?!" "What's wrong with her?" Eduardo was just as confused watching the woman run from the hospital room. Dan sighed, "We'll have to find out later. In the meantime..." Scotty had finally exited the room and stood beside his mother. Cindy spoke, "We'll leave you to your discussion. We'll be waiting in the guest waiting area." Dan nodded, then turned his attention to the room, Eduardo following after.

The disfigured elderly man placed his Game Boy into the drawer of his nightstand as the two men walked into the semi-darkened room. He looked up and saw them just off the side of the bed, the blonde man speaking first, "DyTyllio, I presume?"

"Yes, Mr. Shannon," DyTyllio closed the drawer and sat upright in his bed, "Cindy had told me some of Dr. Spengler's associates wished to speak to me. I, of course, know of you through Scotty. You as well, Mr. Rivera." As DyTyllio spoke, an inflection of humble character projected in his somewhat meak voice. It was a kindly voice… a fearful voice. He looked toward his feet covered by the bedsheets, "Knowing what has happened today, you wish to know what Master Jeremy knew."

"From what Mrs. Whittington told us, you were with Jeremy as he researched the recorder," Dan was actively trying not to use certain words. Not only was he trying not to upset DyTyllio as Cindy had requested, but it made him rather unnerved himself using such language, "We just need an idea on where you went to find information."

"If you want to know how to obtain the recorder," the old man looked to the two of them with his good eye, "I'm afraid there isn't much I know. Master Jeremy made strides in not letting anyone know what he learned."

"But you were with him!" Dan was rather perturbed, "You have to know something!"

"I'm afraid not, Mr. Shannon. After we destroyed the last direct copy of the whole incantation," he again looked back to his feet, "we never spoke of what happened again. Even when I tried to bring it up, Master Jeremy would shut down. He felt an incredible guilt for trying to destroy the world. It was a power no man was ever meant to have, and he believed even _talking_ about it would doom the world again."

"Look, _cuaderno_, you stay quiet and there won't _be_ a world!" Eduardo suddenly had not only DyTyllio's eyes on him, but Dan's. Dan wanted to give the man a scowl, but something compelled him not to. Likewise, Eduardo was intent on continuing, "Someone is obviously playing the Yanni songs of death out there, so either someone found another copy of the sheet music, or there's another way this is happening."

DyTyllio looked away and grabbed the sides of his head and closed his eyes, "I don't know! It's too horrible to think about!"

"Would you tell me?" Everyone in the room turned to the door and found Lita standing in the doorway. She very slowly walked in and approached the bed. Dan approached her and spoke softly to her, "Are you okay now?" The young woman looked to him and nodded. She then proceeded to continue her way to DyTyllio's bed. She knelt beside him, that mother-like air returning to her as she spoke softly, "Please, DyTyllio? We need to know if there was another way so we can stop it."

The deformed bed-ridden old man looked to the young woman beside his bed and saw how she had fear and innocence in her eyes. He averted his eyes and sighed. He sat in silence for a moment or two, "Master Jeremy once said there were two ways to obtain the recorder. The method he was rather fond of was imbuement of the power the dark entity possessed. That way he didn't need to sacrifice anyone."

Dan's eyes suddenly went wide, "Sacrifice?"

"Yes," the man continued, "It warped his persona instead - the law of exchange needed to use the power."

"Wait a minute, man," Eduardo had a quiver of worry in his voice, "does the other method use…" the Latino man looked to the man beside him, Dan exchanging a look back, then looking back to DyTyllio, "_Human_ sacrifice?"

"Yes, it does. Jeremy, although distrought, didn't want to murder people to gain the power. An exchange had to be agreed upon with the other side before use of the power could be granted. The recorder has the power to destroy, but also has the capability to grant life."

Eduardo whistled in amazement, "That's a helluva flute!"

"The sacrifice method allowed the person in control of the recorder to have clear autonomy to proceed as they wished. Destroy or live. Master Jeremy was not the first to have the recorder, but was the first to ask the dark entity to imbue the power unto him. Because part of his soul had to be exchanged to gain its power, the dark entity influenced Master Jeremy to destroy the world. He didn't look at it as control because it was what he wanted as well. I had hoped there was at least a bit of humanity left in him, all the way to the end," a tear formed in the corner of the man's eye, "It took me giving up to finally give Master Jeremy the humanity to stop the madness."

Lita reached into the bed and took the old man's hand, "We know what happened; Egon told us." DyTyllio looked to the woman's hand on his, then looked to her with surprise. The look of innocence and fear had yet to subside, "You may have very well saved us again, DyTyllio."

"Not yet, Lita." Lita turned to Dan as he spoke, "We still have a problem: we don't know where the parts of the Symphony of Destruction are. You had to have had an idea on where the parts of the music are, right?"

"That was the other reason Master Jeremy went with imbuement. The entity gave him all the Stanzas of the Symphony as well as the other musical incantations for the recorder telepathically. Imbuement was the easy way out."

"Shit," Dan put his head into his hand as he crossed his other arm across his chest, "that drops us back at square one."

"Not necessarily," Dan removed his head from his hand and looked to Eduardo whom had an inquisitive look on his face.

Walking out of the hospital room, Eduardo had his hand on his chin stroking his goatee. It was an odd look on his face; he was actively thinking something through. "What ya thinkin', Eddie?" "Someone obviously found one of these things already. They also managed to play it which means they have that flute thing. If the one way to get it is gone, that means someone was sacrificed."

"Oh, hell," Dan spoke with a heavy voice, "You're right," he looked to Eduardo more attentively, "Do you think we should look for missing persons?" Eduardo took his hand from his goatee and crossed his arms, head still tilted down thinking intently. Dan had never seen Eduardo look so serious before, "I donno, man. I don't like it. I might have to talk to Manny about it."

"Who's Manny?"

"My brother's partner. He might be more willing than Carlos to help, considering."

Dan rubbed the back of his neck, "We still have to find the parts of the song. Didn't get much to figure out where to start."

"You think Egon could find these Stanzas with a meter?" Everyone looked to Lita as she made the suggestion, "I mean, they're mythical, right?"

"Maybe," Dan said with a half nod, "with what just happened, we might be able to…" that was when his radio crackled, "_HQ to Shannon."_ The team heard Egon's voice ring over the device's speaker. Dan pulled the radio from his belt and responded, "Shannon here. Go ahead." "_What's your status?"_

"We got a decent cache of info, but we have some disturbing things we're gonna need to go over." After a moment, the radio crackled again, "_Very well. Report back to the firehouse and we'll begin pooling information."_

"Copy, HQ. Shannon out," He placed the radio back on his belt, "Alright, kids, field trips over. Back to the schoolhouse. We'll drop off the Whittingtons on the way." Dan and Eduardo began walking back toward the waiting area. "Guys, wait!" The two of them stopped and turned to their female compatriot, "Can I have a few minutes? Please?" There it was again; Dan was feeling his empathic sense picking up Lita's emotional state. Almost without missing a beat, "Take all the time you need." He turned and headed toward the waiting area once again. Eduardo was a little surprised like he missed something. He looked at Lita, then turned to Dan to notice he was already a ways down the hallway. Eduardo took a double take and started after Dan at a hastened pace.

Lita watched as they walked away. She then turned to the hospital door. She brought her clenched hand to her chest and then proceeded to walk back into the room. She saw that DyTyllio had swung his feet to the window side of the bed and faced said window, looking outside to the dimming light of the late day summer sky. She walked up to the foot of the bed looking outside the same as him for a moment. She looked to the old man and kept her gaze on him for some time. He felt her eyes on him, "What seems to trouble you, child?"

She averted her eyes in shame realizing what she was doing. She started to stutter, "I-I'm sorry, I didn't…" "It's okay, dear girl," DyTyllio looked over to her with a weathered smile, "I am quite used to it. Do you wish to join me?" The small man scooted over on his own bed to give Lita a place to sit. Lita looked to the man. She felt no ill will or offense on his body language. Lita slowly approached the side of the bed and sat on the edge of it beside him. They looked to the orange sky just outside of the building as they sat in silence.

"Oh, how beautiful this world is," Lita looked to DyTyllio as he looked wayward to the outside of the building, "I cannot believe how in the darkness, we can still see some light in this world. Sometimes, it takes a very powerful light to see it. Others, you have to _be_ the light. The human spirit is quite resilient." He turned to the young woman beside him again as he spoke to her, "You are new to this team of Ghostbusters, aren't you?"

Without looking at DyTyllio, she nodded her head. She was the one that wanted to be in this position, but she was rather timid about being beside this man. She wanted to say something, but there was this… wall… blocking her train of thought. Being with Jeremy and Cindy as long as he had, DyTyllio had learned many of the subtle nuances that came with watching two people who had lived with love… loss… "Mr. Shannon," he began, turning back toward the window, "he reminds me a lot of Master Jeremy. From some of the things I had read of this new team, he has this terrible darkness he is trying to suppress. He is a man that believes so hard in goodness, it only takes but one event to destroy that belief," he turned to the Japanese woman beside him, her feeling his eyes on her and the two of them turning toward each other, "May I ask your name, young lady?"

"Lita," she squeaked out, "Lita Kino."

"I see he cares for you very much. You're a very kind soul, that much I can see. It's what holds him at a balance," he sighed as he looked back to the window, "The both of you are in pain. Your lives have gone in ways the average person wouldn't understand. There's a terrible secret, or untold pain, that makes you wish to speak to me."

Lita had squeezed her eyes closed again, her facing the window. She tried to calm herself as what was going through her mind came to the forefront, "Yes."

"A family member?" he asked in a soothing, but concerned voice.

"Yes," Lita was holding her breath in short bursts trying to suppress the feeling she was having.

"I remind you of them?"

"My grandfather!" she croaked out, tears were streaming down her cheeks. Ever since it happened, she had done nothing but cry, but these last few days were the worst of it.

"Please, child," DyTyllio asked kindly, "tell me."


	20. Futaba

Chapter 20: Futaba

July 19th, 1999

It had been a rather long summer. Lita and the other Sailor Scouts spent a great deal of time after their high school graduations together. At Raye's temple, all of them had gathered around the table in the main prayer temple talking about school and other endeavors, "Well, I'm going to be in medical school in one of the northern prefectures, so I'll be in the country, unlike before," Amy was especially thrilled about getting into the University of her choice, not that it was going to be an issue.

"You always have more fun reading books than being some place neat," Serena, a blonde-hair pig-tailed teenager spoke with a piece of donut in her mouth, "I mean, you spent more time reading on the life of Walt Disney then actually _enjoying_ Disneyland. Where's the magic in that?"

"You can always try having an imagination of your own sometime, Meatballhead," Raye, once again taking her normal jabs at the girl beside her. Serena shot the raven-haired priestess a dirty look, "I _have_ an imagination, you just don't appreciate it!" At that point, the two began their bickering again, Amy giggling at the spectacle, "It never ends with them, does it?"

Mina looked over to Lita and saw her looking over a set of pictures she had taken over the summer. She was looking through them picking out the best ones, "What ya got there, Lita?"

She looked to her blonde-haired friend and looked back to the pictures as she blushed a bit, "Oh, I'm just deciding what pictures to send to Dan with my letter back to him." Serena pricked her ears up as she heard Dan's name spoken, "Oh, how is Dan doing? I haven't asked in a while."

"He's doing okay. The phone company is going through some bad times right now. Apparently, one of the big ones is trying to buy a bunch of the smaller ones," a small look of worry came across Lita's face, "He's not sure if he's gonna have a job after all of this."

"That poor guy," Mina looked to her placemat at the table and shook her head, "After all he did for us, he shouldn't have it this hard." "Yeah, really," Raye agreed as she thought back to something, "He really took Ghostbusters folding hard."

"Dr. Spengler told me Dan blamed himself for it," Amy picked up her tea and looked into it thoughtfully, "It really wasn't his fault. Especially with Dr. Spengler's PKE Meter exploding and the American Ambassador…" Lita felt a twinge in her heart as Amy said that. She was - after all - the one that punched Ambassador Flint in the mouth shortly after they exited the building and he was standing there screaming at Dan. She felt responsible for the Ghostbusters paycheck being pulled and the business folding.

The girls started to notice the conversation took an awkward turn and Lita was looking pained. Mina took notice and looked back to the pictures, "So, you gonna send him a copy of the festival pictures? I know being American, he'd wanna see you in a kimono."

Quickly looking over to Mina, Lita took note of her words and fluttered her brow, "Oh! Yeah, that's a good one!" she flipped through the pictures and found the picture of her and the other girls at the Katsushika Shobu Matsuri festival wearing kimonos. She put it with the stack of pictures she curated to send in the mail as Mina began to pry a bit, "Have you finished your letter to him yet?"

"No," the girl said in an exasperated voice, "I'm still trying to figure out what culinary school to apply for. I really wanna go to this one in France, but I can't figure out what their tuition costs are. The brochures they sent me don't do me any good."

"France?" Raye asked surprised.

"Why would you wanna go to culinary school for anyway, Lita?" Serena asked, "You're already an ace chef; why do you need school?"

Lita looked up, "Well, I'm very good with eastern foods, but I'm not very good with western stuff. I would really like to get some professional training. That, and Dan told me about something called, 'Chili.' Sounds like a western version of Curry," the girl smirked, a sparkle came to her green eyes, "Sounds like a challenge."

The day had become late as the taller girl stepped off the bus and walked her way to her apartment. The light was fading in the night sky as she saw the orange and purple hue covering overhead. She stopped a moment as she took it in. She started to see the stars poke through the clouds.

It had been an adventure. It had been years since the Dead Moon Circus was destroyed, Rini had returned to the future, and now things were winding down. The future was clear to her what was to happen, but something had occurred to her. Where she was going to be, she realized looking back someone was missing. She couldn't put a finger on who.

She saw her mail carrier approach her apartment complex door. She recognized him, "Jake!" She waved her hand in the air and ran up to him, running up the stairs of the building to catch up, "Hey, Jake!" The somewhat older man with a moustache stopped and took notice of the girl, "Lita!" She stopped before the man and looked to him sweetly, "Any good news for me?"

The older man reached into his mail bag and quickly flipped through his organized stacks, "Ah, yes, here we are." He pulled out a single letter. He handed it to her, then proceeded to open the door of the apartment letting himself to the mailboxes. Lita looked to the front of the letter and followed him inside. She turned the letter over, it looked like one of Dan's letters…

There were no American post markings. It looked as plain as Dan's usual stationary, but was clearly still handwritten, "Wait a minute. This is from Futaba," she looked to the name, "Hey, it's from my grandfather!" She opened the letter as the mailman talked, "Oh? Your boy's been slackin' off on the letters as of late."

"His company's been beating him down," She somewhat began to read the letter as she tried to talk, "He's been real busy… w-with…" the brown haired girl trailed off as she read the letter in silence. Her face turned deathly pale as she kept reading. The girl's silence made the mail carrier turn in place to look at the lady's expression change to something he's never seen from her before, "Lita? Lita, what's the matter?" She looked to him, then to the letter again. She turned tail and began running up the stairs. Unlocking her door, she closed it quickly behind her. She sat at her kitchen table and looked at the note again…

_My dear little Lightning Bug,_

_I know we haven't been in good contact as of late, but we had something happen you need to know about. Last week I was taking my annual checkup, and they found my white blood cells elevated. What that means is - and you better be sitting for this - I have pancreatic cancer. Worse yet, __**it's already spread to my liver**__._ _I already had a second opinion, and the results are conclusive._

_I've arranged to head to the local Hospice. I would not normally contact you like this, but me and your grandmother didn't know how to tell you over the phone. We know you're in the middle of getting prepared for culinary school, but I need your help. Your grandmother has arranged for you to take a train. From there she'll pick you up. Please call us when you get this letter, then let us know when you're on your way._

_We are so incredibly sorry about this. We hope to see you soon nevertheless._

_Be swift,_

_Grandfather Kino _

Lita felt cold. She felt a sense of panic start to creep up her chest as she dropped the letter. She ran into her bedroom and immediately pulled a suitcase and a duffle bag from her closet. She began packing clothes quickly. The sense of urgency was extreme, the back of her mind repeating over and over again as she scrambled, _No, not again! I can't lose my grandpa, too!_ She started loading toiletries into her bag as she heard a voice call out, "Lita? Lita, are you here?"

She stopped what she was doing. She had walked from her bedroom to find Serena wandering around in her kitchen, "Oh, Lita! Good, I was hoping you didn't just leave your door unlocked," the blonde was holding a lunch bag in her hands, "You forgot this at Raye's," she handed the bag to Lita, then blushed a bit, "I cleaned out what was left in there."

"That's okay, Serena," Lita tried to calmly take the bag, "you know I don't mind." Serena looked to Lita with a smile, but there was something wrong. Serena looked to her friend and saw this rather distressed look on her face, "Hey, what's the matter?"

"Oh, well," She looked away, "It's nothing. I just got a message that… well… I have to leave for Futaba."

"Oh!" Serena said excitedly, "did you get a response from one of those culinary schools?" Lita was losing her patience. She just felt hagared about what was happening, "Serena, you ditz; the school I want to go to in in FRANCE!" She turned around and started screaming, "Can't you for one minute pay attention to anything _anyone_ says?! Huh?"

Serena was heavily taken aback by that, tears starting to form in her eyes, "I'm sorry Lita! I was just hoping it was something good!" Lita turned around to face her friend throwing her lunch bag across the living room, shouting as she did, "When does ANYTHING good happen to me?" "Lita, what's wrong? You're never like this to anyone unless… unless you're hurt! What happened?"

Lita stood in silence for a moment as she closed her eyes. She backed into a wall and she slid down it, going into the fetal position as she reached the ground. She had tears in her eyes. Serena knelt down and placed a hand on her friend's shoulder, "You wanna tell me about it?"

An hour had passed. On the kitchen table were two cups with tea bags in them. Serena took the tea kettle off the stove and proceeded to pour the hot water over the bags one cup at a time, then returned the kettle to the stove. Lita had sat at the table, face buried in her arms that were crossed on the table. Serena sat back down across from her and started talking, "I'm sorry to hear about all of this. Have you called them yet?"

"No" Lita's voice was muffled as she kept her head down. She proceeded to look up at the girl across from her, "I just got the letter as I got in. As soon as I opened it, I ran and started packing. I was going to leave tonight."

"Tonight?" Serena was dunking her tea bag in her cup as she stopped and looked at her, "Don't you think it's a bit late to head that far north? I mean, its over 200 kilometers away!"

"I know, but I can't sit by knowing grandpa's sick!" Lita was clearly worried about it. Serena released her tea bag and put a hand on her friend's, "I know you've had a hard time with your folks being gone, but to head out half-cocked is going to cause you more frustration and trouble. I know you too well, Lita." After all they had been through together, Serena had matured a great deal over time. Lita looked to her hand and then looked to Serena. Serena's saffire blue eyes sparkled in a worrisome way, hoping in a way Lita would see reason. "Please," she pleaded, "just call them. Start tomorrow. They're going to need you in your right mind if you're going to help them."

Lita nodded her head and smiled a weak smile, "You're right. I just started thinking about it and…" she sighed a hard sigh. She hung her head as she closed her eyes, "My grandparents were all I had left this whole time. After school and all the Sailor Scout duties, I just thought it would all finally calm down." She looked up and looked to Serena with glassy eyes, "They deserve better."

Serena picked up her tea and asked just before she took a sip, "How long do you think you need to be up there?"

"I don't know," Lita picked up her tea and peered into it, watching the steam rise from the lip of the cup, "I guess until things are settled. He didn't tell me anything in the letter besides the fact he has it, but…"

"But what?"

"Pancreatic is the worst kind to get. It spread to his liver which means I have very little time. It was how Dan's grandfather died."

"Are you going to tell him?" Lita looked from her cup to her. At first she acted confused as though she didn't know who she was referring to, but she quickly knew she couldn't hide that fact. All she did was shake her head, "I can't. He'll worry about me, and he's already got enough on his mind. He had a fight with his mother last month about him and his time off work."

"You still have to tell him something," Serena put her cup down and folded her hands, "After all, he cares about you. Besides, he'd need to be able to get his letters to you, right?" She giggled a little, "I mean, how else we gonna know what he's up to?"

Lita looked to her fellow Sailor Scout and couldn't help but giggle a bit herself, "Serena, I could know you for a thousand years, and you'll never change. Still," she broke eye contact with her and looked around the room, "you are right, but I can't tell him outright why I'm going. He'd drop everything and come out here. I don't want to do that to him."

"Then," Serena reached across the table and put her hand on her friend's again, "what _are_ you going to tell him?"

_July 19th, 1999_

_Dear Dan,_

_Things are going okay over here. Me and the other scouts have been hanging out since graduation doing all the things we've been wanting to do for a long time. It was fun going to Tokyo Disneyland with them, but Serena gorged herself on too many snacks and got sick. Darien had to carry her around for nearly an hour before she finally felt better. Then there was Amy and her telling us the history of Walt Disney. I mean, I've seen Snow White a million times. It ruined the experience a bit. I still say I could have been Snow White in that play; I _clearly _had the talent for it. I still don't know why people point to my chest and call that my talent. Really strange._

_Oh, sorry. Mind wandered off. And this is my last sheet of paper, too. I'm sorry, but I'll have to leave this in the letter._

_We also went to the Katsushika Iris festival and looked at all the beautiful flowers. So many different kinds of iris flowers, I just wanted to ask who planted them all and ask their secrets. I was standing by the pond in Katsushika. All I could think about was you. That night we went out when you were in Tokyo. I wish you could have been here with me when we were watching the fireworks display. I feel you felt the same way on your Independence Day recently._

_I'm sorry about the argument you had with your mom. It's sounding like they're becoming more frequent as you write me. Honestly, I don't know what to say to help you, but nevertheless, I hope you two will stop it before you two say something that will really make you hate each other. You don't want that. I'm sure she doesn't either._

_Things are hectic now that I need to look forward. I've been looking up culinary schools to figure out which one I want to go to, and I think I have one in mind. I miss you very much, Dan. I can't believe it's been almost 4 years since we first met. I know it bothers you whenever I bring this up, but I'll never forget how we first met. I honestly thought it was another Negaverse monster around the corner from my locker. Next thing I know, you're pulling out your Proton Pack's gun and jumping around the corner. Then I knocked you over. I'm sorry, but I just can't forget that. It showed how new of a Ghostbuster you were, but you were rather dedicated to doing your job. I couldn't help but fall in love with you, even if you were a little jumpy._

_Dan, I have something I need to tell you. There's something I have to take care of in Futaba for a little while, so I'll be forwarding my letters to where I'm going to be. I'm worried about what I have ahead of me, so I would love to hear from you. Again, I'll get you the address of where I'll be at in my next letter._

_Ever since you left, there was this pain inside that woke up; worse than it ever was before. When you were here, it felt like everyone disappeared around us. Scared and alone in the tower with demons that were more powerful than I was, Jedite making that doppelganger of me. I kept crying out for help. Jedite severed my link to you in that place. I feel that way now. _

_I love and miss you very much,_

_Lita_


	21. One More Moment

Chapter 21: One More Moment

July 20th, 1999

Lita had placed the letter in her mailbox along with her forward request. She quickly stuffed both pieces of paper into the box's slot then scrambled out of her apartment door. Problem with what she had done was as she stuffed both into the box at the same time, the forward request was under her letter to Dan. The note curled and missed the box slit falling to the floor. Because she was in a hurry, she failed to notice the forward notice not getting inserted into the box. Shortly after she hailed a cab to the train station, another tenant walked out into the mailbox area with a bike. The bike's rear tire managed to get the notice stuck to it dragging it out of the building behind him. Once he got to ground level, he started riding causing the notice to get caught in the wind and was blown away.

Stepping off the train, a much older woman was standing outside watching as she did, "Lita!" "Grandma!" She ran towards the woman with her bags, dropped them beside the car, and very gently hugged her.

They walked into the Hospice. Many a sick and elderly person sitting in wheelchairs and walking with IV stands, oxygen bottles on carts, and other medical paraphernalia milled the hallways. Lita clenched her hand and brought it to her chest as she saw how miserable all of them were. Inside the administration office Lita and her grandmother sat as they talked about what was inevitably going to happen.

The two arrived at the cancer treatment center across town. The reason Lita's grandfather was not in with them at the Hospice was due to him getting his first treatment of chemotherapy. They waited patiently in the waiting area as the procedure and post observation took place. Her grandfather walked out of the treatment center and saw the two of them there. Lita stood up and ran up to him to hug, but she stopped short. She noticed that his eyes were yellow. Jaundice caused by bile blockage; the cancer affecting his liver. It scared her.

The days started to run long. While washing dishes in the kitchen, her grandfather sat at the kitchen table, asleep; the result of the chemo draining his body of energy. She stopped what she was doing and went to check on him. He woke up with a start and looked surprised to his granddaughter. Lita assisted by helping him out of his chair and headed toward the bedroom.

Lita was stripping her grandfather's bed and found a lot of hair all over the sheets and pillow case. The treatments started attacking his hair follicles.

Lita sat at the kitchen table and attempted to write Dan a letter. She kept starting to write, but would soon after crumple the paper up and throw it in the garbage can. The can was beginning to overflow with crumpled papers. She became so frustrated, she dropped her pen and put her head on the table. She covered her head with her arms began to sob uncontrollably.

Another month had passed. Lita checked the mailbox every day, and found nothing from Dan. All that came instead were bills from medical doctors and late payments bills.

Lita's grandmother sat at the kitchen table and worked on all of the bills and medical forms that needed to be sorted out. The old woman was beginning to be overwhelmed as she started to cry.

Lita and her grandmother walked toward the house with a number of bags of groceries. Lita suddenly heard a thump behind her and saw a tomato roll past her. She turned to find her grandmother collapsed on the walkway to the house. She proceeded to drop her bag and ran up to her. She had just had a heart attack.

Dressed in black, Lita and her grandfather stood before a wake, Lita's grandmother lying in a casket. Her grandfather was now using a walker, his body now losing muscle mass and his hair now completely gone. He walked to the head of the casket, then fell to his knees in tears. Lita knelt down beside him to help him up, but he then collapsed completely.

Another month had passed and the leaves on the trees were starting to turn colors. Lita had checked the mailbox at her grandparent's house and found more notices. Because of what happened, she started opening the letters herself. Her apartment in Tokyo had just been vacated due to lapse in rent. She tried to figure out what to do going through the files in the house, but there was nothing she could do to stop what had happened. All of her possessions, all of her clothes, all of her cooking equipment - gone.

October 10th, 1999

It's almost been 4 years since she last saw him. She paced outside of the Hospice and looked to the moon above as she thought to herself. It was a hard decision. In her hand was a clipboard the doctors wanted her to look over. She looked above as though she was trying to get an answer to a question, but one wasn't coming. She looked back to the clipboard and read the title for it again, "No Resuscitation Order". On one line was her grandfather's signature. They needed next of kin to sign as well; for her to sign.

"Dan," Lita asked, "what do I do? I-I don't know what to do." She heard a door open behind her, "Ms. Kino?" She turned to find a nurse standing in the doorway looking to her. She spoke softly to her, "He's regained consciousness." Without thinking twice she ran into the building and ran toward the room almost knocking other Hospice staff over as she ran by. She ran into the room and stopped halfway between the bed and the door. Nurses and Doctors were surrounding the bed checking everything over as she stood there. Lita's grandfather looked over and saw her standing there.

He looked to be a shell of his former self. His yellow eyes peered to her, "Lita."

"Everyone," Lita addressed the staff, "I'd like a moment alone with him."

A doctor approached her and spoke frankly, "Ms. Kino, we're trying to stabilize his condition, it would be best if you..." Lita grabbed the doctor by the arm and twisted it behind his back, voice becoming more stern, "I said I want a moment! Get OUT!" The other doctor in the room as well as the nurses stopped what they were doing and hurried out of the room. After the others had gone, Lita released the doctor, him stumbling out of the room quickly. She closed the door behind them. The adrenaline rushing through her made her breathe unevenly as she rested against the door for a moment. She wanted so badly to cry, but she held back.

"Lightning Bug?" Lita's eyes opened as she heard her grandfather called out. She turned and started walking toward him. She grabbed a chair and dragged it next to the bed to talk to him. She sat as he began, him weakly reaching over to hold her hand, "Lita, I can't…" he started coughing, covering his mouth with his other hand. Lita held her gasped breath until he finished. He cleared his throat again, and looked back to her, "Lita, I want you to do something for me."

She didn't miss a beat, "Anything grandpa. Tell me and I'll do it."

The old man looked saddened. She suddenly realized what he was about to ask, "I want you to sign it."

She put her hand to her mouth, her eyes beginning to glass over, "No…"

"Lita, I can't take it anymore. It was because of your grandmother that I decided to attempt treatment. Lita," he attempted to tighten his grip the best he could, "I'm just hurting you by being alive; attempting to stay that way just hurts us both. I have made my peace." "Grandpa," she looked at him intensely, trying to remember the days she spent with both her grandparents. Remembering a younger and healthier version of the both of them. Losing her grandmother left a pain in her heart, but what the man before her was requesting was not an act of weakness, but an act of mercy. "Grandpa, I don't know if I can. I don't wanna give up on you!"

"You never have," a tear streaked down his face as he massaged the young girl's hand with his thumb, "and you won't by doing so. Please, Lita." The one time in her life. This had to be the one time in her life where she could keep a family member alive, but she knew it was futile. His skin was pitted and frail, his breathing labored, around his eyes red. She looked to him and knew keeping him alive was a selfish feeling on her part. She couldn't stand to think about losing both her grandparents in one month's time. Losing her grandmother was hard enough, but she knew why; her grandmother's heart was so frail and was breaking knowing the man she had loved almost her whole life was dying slowly before her. That heartbreak ending with a truly stopped heart.

The 18-year-old Lita was losing it all - She lost her apartment, her belongings, her ability to go to school, her dreams, and now what little family she has left is asking her to give him up. It was the hardest decision she ever made. She looked around the room and saw the heart monitors beeping, the oxygen monitors flashing numbers across their screens. He was hooked up to wires and tubes all injecting fluids in and taking readings out. The soft noises of medical equipment beeped and hummed giving a hard reality of the situation. She knew this was no way to live. Against her emotions, she looked again to the clipboard on her lap. She took the pen from the clip and signed her name.

Just as she finished, she heard him speak, "Thank you. I'll always love you, my little… lightning…" his grip loosened from her other hand and went limp. The heart monitor started beeping at flatline.

Lita backed out of the room with both of her hands over her mouth and nose, tears rolling down her cheeks as medical staff started rushing toward the room. After the nurses ran passed her and into the room, she turned and started running away to the front of the building. She never looked back.

"I see," DyTyllio had been listening to Lita's story. The woman had her eyes closed, tears again rolling down her face. DyTyllio reached to his other end table and grabbed a box of tissues, pointing the top of the box toward her, "You feel as though you may have done him a disservice."

She opened her eyes and looked to the short disfigured man, him still holding the tissue box toward her. She took a tissue and started blotting her eyes, performing small gasps in her speech , "I just wi-ish I had more ti-ime!"

DyTyllio sighed and he placed the box between them then looked out the window, "Ah, yes. One more moment. People in this life don't appreciate it very much until it's gone. It's what makes people like us so special," Lita looked to the old man beside her on the bed as he continued, "You had a great tragedy in your life even before this one. When this one came, you knew you had to spend as much time as possible with the people you love. The fact you had your grandfather's life in your hands, you could have had one more moment, but you knew that last moment would have had been one of pain."

Lita was starting to calm down as she heard his words, small amounts of regret in them as he spoke, "I almost had my last moment be telling Master Jeremy how the world had beauty he was blind to. The small amount of humanity he had left was seeing he wished to have a whole different moment with one he considered his best friend. He cared for me before his heartbreak, and again soon after he tried to destroy the world. He spent the rest of his days making sure that one moment wouldn't be spoiled. Your grandfather had the best moment he could have; seeing the strong heart of his granddaughter be beside him and bravely tell him goodbye."

That was something Lita never considered. A look of shock came to her face as she looked at the man again. It was what Dan couldn't bare to see; the reason why he yelled at her after fighting the Draugr and nearly losing her life. He saw it too many times in his lives in both the Silver Millenium and during the events of the 3rd Tokyo mission. He didn't want those moments to be the last. He wanted one more moment. If those were the moments he had of her, he'd feel his whole life had lost all meaning. His previous remaining moments were all ones of failure.

"I have but one question for you, my dear," Lita looked to the man who was now turned to her, "Will you need one more moment?"

"Man, what's taking her so long?" Eduardo, Dan, and the Whittingtons sat in the waiting area as they waited for Lita to finish. Eduardo was getting antsy, "I mean, Egon called us a half an hour ago; we're gonna get yelled at!"

"Relax, Eddie," Dan was feeling a lot of distress from the other side of the building, "Whatever's going on, she'll be done soon." As if on cue, Lita walked into the waiting area slowly. Eduardo piped up immediately, "'Bout time!" He quickly stood up and started walking out of the waiting area toward the elevators. Dan, Cindy, and Scotty got up from their chairs much slower than Eduardo and approached Lita.

Dan put his hands onto Lita's shoulders and looked at her in the eyes. He noticed the red rings around her eyes, "Are you gonna be okay?" All Lita did was wrap her arms around him and hold him close. He rested his hand on her head as she buried her head onto his shoulder. He looked to the Whittingtons, "Can you wait by the truck?" Cindy nodded her head and instructed Scotty to follow. After they left the waiting area, the two of them stood in silence. It was becoming clear to him what had transpired, "I know, my little Lightning Bug."

Lita's eyes shot open wide and she quickly pulled away. She looked into the man's eyes and found that his eyes were just as glassed over as her's. Because of how upset she was, he saw everything. He felt every feeling, he heard every conversation, he knew every little detail. All he had was painful understanding in his eyes. Tears formed in her eyes again as she wrapped her arms around him even tighter than before, "I'm sorry, Dan! I wanted to tell you! Please don't be mad at me! I didn't want you to worry! I didn't know what to do!"

"You've been holding this in for years," Dan said as he gently cradled her in his arms, "You felt like you gave up on him. You didn't," he pulled her away to look at her again, "He asked you to do something that was extremely difficult to do, and you honored him. If he saw what you had been and what you were to become, there's no doubt he'd be proud of you," He drew her in again, "Don't you ever think your family being hurt and in need of care is something I will ever be mad at you over."

"It's not just that," she said, "I thought you abandoned me! When I didn't get your letters…" Dan suddenly knew the other half of it. His returned letters… "I was so _angry_ at you afterwards. I never tried to find you afterwards because… Because I hated you!" He immediately let go of her and backed up. Lita looked up as he abruptly moved and looked at his face. He was mortified. He was beginning to hyperventilate, "No. Lita, no!"

"Dan, I didn't know what was happening!" The very night her grandfather had passed away was the same night Dan wondered why Lita hadn't wrote to him. They both believed the same thing: they had been abandoned. With their link, Dan may have been picking up on her stress of the situation. Neither one of them knew outright. Dan began backing out of the room shaking his head. Even _hearing_ she hated him was too much for him. He turned and started to walk when Lita ran out and grabbed him by the hand, "No, Dan!" He stopped as she pleaded with him, "Please, give me one more moment!"

Dan knew what she was asking. DyTyllio's words echoed in his mind, the words being given to him through the link with her. She was terrified of how he took her feelings, "I didn't want to tell you what happened because I know the same thing happened to you. I didn't want you to upend your life for me. I was so afraid to write to you before that because… because…" She never finished her sentence. Dan spun on his heels and proceeded to hold her tight. She returned it in kind. Tears were in his eyes, "My god, Lita, why have we been crying so much?"

"We were apart too long," she said softly, "We haven't spoken for so long, we were afraid of each other. We can't do this again."

DyTyllio had stepped out of his room and was watching what was going on in the hospital hallway. He watched as the two Ghostbusters held onto each other. He felt the pain the two of them felt, but also the love. It was bittersweet, but it was still love, "Sometimes all you need," the short man said to himself, "is just one more moment." With that, the man walked into his room and closed the door behind him.

Shortly after, DyTyllio crawled into his bed, grabbed a notepad, and wrote a note. He opened the nightstand drawer that had his Game Boy in it and pulled out a worn down and dusty old notebook. He placed the note inside and placed it back into the drawer. He looked back to the door to his room and sighed. He proceeded to pull the covers over him and went to sleep. The image in his mind of the two young Ghostbusters slowly dissolved into an image of Jeremy and Cindy Whittington. It was the moment he wished to hold onto. An image he helped create. An image that made him happy. When DyTyllio had gone to sleep, it would be the last time he would do so.


	22. Seek

Chapter 22: Seek

Sunday, June 23rd 2002

Main Branch - New York Public Library

10:25 PM

The Library. It was said that the Ghostbusters' true start began at this very building. Being closed on this Sunday was no different than any other Sunday. Guards roamed the halls of this historic place as silence fell sans the footsteps of said guards. In main security, a guard had a laptop sitting on his control bench in front of the monitors, him playing a game of solitaire on the main screen. As the guard played his game, he noticed movement on one of the monitors. He lowered the lid of the laptop and looked quickly…

Nothing was there. The monitor was focused on special collections. He grabbed his radio, "Mitchell, this is main. Come back?" The radio gave a short burst of static, "_**Mitchell. Go ahead, main."**_ "Yeah, I got a small blip on one of the monitors. Rare Collections, basement two. Over?" "_**Copy. Go back to your game, I'll look into it."**_

The guard at the console was about to raise his laptop's lid when suddenly someone pushed the lid back down from behind. A man with slicked back silver hair wearing black was in the room behind the console closing the computer. The guard gasped, startled by the man's appearance in the room with him. "Hey," He started, "You're not supposed to… MMMmmMMph!" A hand with a rag inside of it clasped over his mouth and nose. The guard collapsed and landed on his laptop. The guard was knocked cold.

Behind the guard was another guard. She was placing the cap back onto the bottle of chloroform as she looked to Matthew, "Man, I wish we didn't have to knock him out."

"I understand, Sister Daniels," Matthew spoke in an even tempered tone as he looked to the unconscious guard, "but as you and Brother Mitchell had explained, he was a new hire. Our time is growing shorter by the day; we didn't have enough time to bring him into the Order of Asatro. Besides, we have sufficient number of followers as is," He walked from behind the console and proceeded toward the room's door, "Call Brother Mitchell and advise him of my approach."

"_För gudarna._"

Ghostbusters HQ

11:00 PM

Dan, Eduardo, and Lita had returned to the firehouse some time ago and were researching the information they had gathered with Egon, Kylie, and Roland. Roland was attempting to modify PKE meters using old information Egon and Ray had gathered from the original Jeremy Whittington encounter as far back as 1986. It was becoming a rather engrossing conversation, "From what it looks like," Kylie was switching back and forth between books, "the Stanzas were separated sometime after the 13th century in Newfoundland."

Egon had been typing furiously on his computer sending emails in a rapid-fire succession, "I managed to get in contact with some of the museums in the region that might have some information on any documents that would have been involved with any of these music sheets. It will be some time before we get a lead on any of the Stanzas. I have requested Janine to keep an eye out for any replies."

"Great," Dan said sarcastically, leaning against Egon's bench, "Who knows where the hell they are after this many years. They could be all the friggin way in Norway with the way our luck is."

Roland broke in, "Going on Lita's suggestion, I've modified the PKE meters to detect the vibrations any of the exposed documentation using previously collected information," He closed up the back of the meter and tossed it toward Dan, him catching it, "Just fire it up and select the recall function. A preloaded program will load and detect anything involved."

"Maybe at least we'll be able to find the bozos that're involved with this," Lita looked ready to ring someone's neck, "I can't _believe_ people would want to destroy the world like this!"

"I donno why you're gettin' upset," Eduardo was eating an apple, taking a bite of it. He chewed for a bit, then attempted to speak again, "I mean, for us, this is your average Sunday." Eduardo took another bite, but this time some of the juice got into his cut on his lip causing him to flinch in pain. Dan sighed as he placed the PKE meter on his belt, "He's not wrong."

"I do have at least one other idea," Egon turned in his chair to the others as their attention was now drawn to him, "Lita, I'm curious about something."

Lita cocked her head to the side, "What, Egon?"

"Can Raye still perform those fire readings Amy told me about?"

Roland was confused, "Why are you asking her if Ray can do that?" Dan answered, "No, not Ray Stantz, Roland. Lita's friend Raye. She's a temple priestess and can perform vision-seeking readings using fire."

"Wait a minute," Kylie had a small trace of glee in her voice as she asked, "Raye - the girl whose grandfather owns a temple," she tried to hold back a laugh even harder as she looked at Dan, "that Dan crashed into." Dan looked to Lita, a look of absolute annoyance on his face. Lita blushed and grimaced as her head sunk into her shoulders, "Uh, oh." He shook his head and spoke to her in mock anger, "I'll rain fiery death on you later." Pulling herself out of her fear-of-death-by-tickling state she knew she was going to endure later, she finally answered Egon, "Yeah. She still performs them daily."

Kylie was rather impressed and furthermore, curious, "Is she very advanced with Pyromancy?"

"Pyro-what-see?" Eduardo had finished eating his apple the threw the core into Egon's trash can when he heard the word. Egon of course explained to his student, "Pyromancy; the practice of channeling spiritual energy through fire. The last I heard, she had been known to pull prophetic world-ending predictions from the fire; some of them very vivid to her. Our third trip to Tokyo was one of her visions."

Monday, June 24th 2002

Cherry Hill Temple

Tokyo, Japan

1:25 PM

Raye Hino is seen in the main temple sweeping up for general visitation and had also cleaned her fireplace of the now cool ashes that had burned the night before. It had become a mundane task for her seeing there were at present no more threats to encroach from the Negaverse. The quiet was good for a time, but she was again becoming restless. The silence was deafening. She sighed as she began sweeping up the dust and ashes she had collected into a dust pan, "It is so _quiet_ around here. I wish something exciting would happen again."

She began walking to the trashcan in the kitchen as the phone began to ring. She had her hands full attempting to put the ashes into the can without causing it to fly into the air. She called out, "Hey, Grandpa? Can you get that? I'm in the middle of something!" The short old balding man was outside watching as the girls near the Cherry Blossom trees sat below and talked in the summer weather. He was undressing them with his eyes as he heard his granddaughter call out again, still hearing the phone himself. He had become annoyed when his woman watching was interrupted. He walked back inside and proceeded to the phone.

He looked to the caller ID that was beside the phone. He read the number as the ID read, "New York Call." He was thoroughly annoyed now because he recognized the number from before. He picked up the phone, "Cherry Hill Temple. Look here, you klutzy idiot…"

On the other side of the phone Lita took her ear away from the phone as Raye's grandfather started yelling obscenities into it. Still in Egon's lab, she was sitting beside Egon using the phone. Egon heard the yelling emanate from the phone speaker, "Is it common for him to just start yelling at anyone who calls?"

"No," Lita responded, ear still far away from the handset. She looked at the phone and winced at the profanity pouring through the phone, "He got a caller ID recently because of all the prank calls they got. He notes a number and when he sees it again, he gets angry as he answers it."

Eduardo commented, "I guess that Prince Albert joke can get old after a while."

"...and furthermore, you so much as _think_ of this phone number again…!" "_Grandpa Hino, stop!"_ The old man stopped yelling into the phone as he recognized the voice on the phone, "Ms. Kino? What are you doing calling from an American number? What are you doing calling from the Ghostbusters office?"

"_Nevermind that now, I need to speak to Raye. The Ghostbusters need her help with something."_

"Those jerks?" He was starting to lose his temper again, "Give me one good reason I should let her help that bunch of clowns."

Back in New York, Lita was also beginning to lose her cool, "How about this? If I don't speak with Raye in the next 5 seconds, not only will _I_ no longer visit the temple, but I'll convince Serena to do the same!" She heard the phone drop onto a table and the sounds of rustling and shuffling was heard. The next thing she heard was Raye bickering hearing her grandfather mumbling behind her. The voice became louder to where she could make it out, "_Grandpa, will you stop shoving me? What's gotten into you?" _"Works every time," Lita had a smirk on her face as she said that.

"I don't get it," Roland was feeling out of the loop again, "Why is he so difficult?"

Dan chuckled, "He's still pissed that I wrecked his roof. The advantage she has over Raye's grandfather is that he's a dirty old man." "What does that have to…" Roland began asking, then it dawned on him what that meant, "Oh… _Ohhhh!_"

The phone rustled a bit as she heard her friend's voice on the other end, "_Hello?" _"Raye, it's Lita. Hello from New York!"

Back in Tokyo, Raye had a look of surprise on her face. She suddenly became excited, "Lita! How are things going out there?" "_They could be better. Had a few hiccups while I was here. Um… I've joined the Ghostbusters."_

"_WHAT?!"_ Lita took the phone away from her ear again as a new string of obscenities streamed over the phone. With her free hand, she facepalmed herself. Even Kylie could hear it from her research table, "Yep, she's definitely related to her grandfather."

"Raye, Raye!" Lita started talking into the receiver trying to get her to stop. She lost her patience again, "Will you put a sock in it!" Raye finally stopped yelling into the phone as Lita found it safe enough to put it to her ear again, "This isn't a social call! We need your help!" "_Why? What's going on?" _"Well…" Lita was stuck. She looked to Egon for an explanation, "What do I say?" "Just tell her," Egon took a breath of air before he started, "we had experienced an ectoplasmic-induced tectonic plate shift caused by a quasi-dimensional recorder utilizing Norse ethereal vibrations in the form of music."

Lita stared at him blankly, "...Uh…?"

Dan shook his head and sighed. He looked to Lita, "Do you want me to talk to her?" Lita nodded vigorously. There was another phone by Roland. He approached it and picked up the receiver and broke into the line, "Raye, it's Dan."

"_Dan?! Oh, it's great to hear you!"_

"Yeah, it's good to hear you too. For starters, you _really_ need to pick up the phone more; you could have heard from me sooner if your grandfather didn't keep hanging up the fucking phone on me."

"_Yeah, sorry about that. He's still…"_

"I know. Like Lita said, this isn't a social call. We need your help on finding a handful of artifacts. Someone is trying to collect them and they're trying to destroy the world."

There was a silence, "_...No pressure."_

"Yeah, no shit."

"_I can only help in tracking if I have a decent explanation of what I'm looking for. What is it I'm trying to find?"_

"We were hoping we'd be able to email or even fax the information to you."

Raye scoffed, "_Are you kidding? Grandpa couldn't SPELL fax let alone have and use one. However, Amy's mom has a fax machine."_

"_Good, so you can take down our fax number here at the firehouse," _Raye listened intently as Dan gave Raye the number. She scribbled it down on the notepad beside the phone. "Okay," she peeled the sheet from the notepad, "How do I get _her_ number?" "_Just send something to us and the number will appear on the fax you send to our end. From there, Egon and Kylie will send a write-up of the information back. Raye?"_

"Yeah, Dan?"

"_Thank you." _Raye couldn't help but smile to herself. She felt giddy enough to state out loud, "How come there isn't another guy like you around? To tell you the truth, if Lita wasn't dating you, I'd snatch you in an instant."

"_Uh, Raye?" _ Dan had a concerned tone in his voice. "What?" "_I heard that!" _Lita's voice rang over the phone. Raye didn't know Lita was still on the line on a separate phone. Raye took her head away from the phone as a string of obscenities roared over the line. She very gently hung up the phone as she unironically commented, "Geez, what kinda person yells like that into the phone?"

Lita slammed the phone back onto it's hook. Dan put his phone on the hook more gently as he commented, "That went well." Lita was still fuming as Egon looked to the rest of his field Ghostbusters in the room, "Roland, Kylie, Eduardo, why don't the three of you call it a night. We'll begin again in the morning."

"Are you sure?" Kylie looked to her professor and attempted to protest, "I mean, we have to start on that write-up…"

"Kylie, Japan's 14 hours ahead of us right now," Dan pushed off Roland's work table as he approached Lita's side, "It'd be better if you got some sleep and started fresh in the morning."

"He's correct on both counts," Egon looked to the overtired Japanese woman beside him, "It's been an extremely long day. Go on home." Kylie stood from her chair quickly, annoyed. Roland patted Eduardo on the back, "Come on, I'll give you a ride home." The two men walked out soon to be followed by Kylie when Dan stopped her, "Kylie?" She stopped and turned, "What?" she snapped.

Dan didn't like the way she responded, but he tried to keep an even keel on how he responded in kind, "I know you want to take care of this quickly, but if we don't keep ourselves balanced, we're gonna make mistakes. I just want to make sure you guys aren't going to do anything that'll get you hurt."

The words. The words hit Kylie like a brick. It was almost like what Lita had told her a few days ago. She remembered how she never looked Dan in the eyes whenever the two of them talked. She looked now and saw how he had a sense of concern in his eyes. Dan approached and looked to her as he said with sincerity in his voice, "You're very dedicated to your research and your passion, and for that, I thank you." Kylie had a look of guilt on her face. She knew she had a few things to atone for, but even she knew that would have to come later. Dan looked to the lab door, "Go on. If you catch Roland, he'll give ya a lift."

She didn't know what to say. She couldn't say anything. She just smiled. Maybe what she believed was wrong this whole time. She did manage to get one thing out, "Goodnight Dan. Egon. Lita." She walked out. Dan sighed as she walked down the stairs, "This job is exhausting." He shook his head and turned to the last people in the room with him, "If you don't mind, Egon, I'm gonna clock early," he looked to his girlfriend, her having her hands on her temples, "I'm assuming Lita wants to, too."

"Very well," Egon turned back to his computer, "I'll keep looking for anything we can use in our search. You two have a good night's rest." Dan ushered Lita out and to the bunk room. The physicist stopped for a moment and watched as they walked out of the door, "I'm beginning to think they need more than just rest."

Dan opened the door to the bunk room and allowed Lita in first. Before she got too far, "Lita?" She stopped and turned to him, "Yeah, Dan?" "This is for telling Kylie about Raye's roof!" A smirk appeared on his face as he pushed her inside and closed the door. After a moment, the sounds of Lita laughing hysterically could be heard from the outside of the door, "Stop! _Stop! _I surrender!"


	23. Rue

Chapter 23: Rue

Monday, June 24th, 2002

Main Branch - New York Public Library

8:22 AM

The Earthquake had done enough to the city, let alone the monstrosity that demolished Chelsea the week before. Today was another disaster. In the main reading room of the library, tables throughout were destroyed. What looked like a large trail of viscous ooze covered the floor. Alongside one of the walls was a group of police and the New York County coroner. He was taking pictures of a body that was laying beside the wall. It was a guard. Her name tag read, "Daniels."

On the other side of the room was the guard that was running main security. He was extremely distraught; his head was in his hands running his hands through his hair. He was draped in a blanket. He kept repeating to himself, "Tell me this is a dream," whimpering hard as he kept peering over to the scene of the crime, then back to the floor. A group of police walked into the crime scene accompanied by members of the Library staff and some city officials.

A larger mustachioed man in a police uniform approached the man and knelt down before him. He saw the guard was extremely shaken. The officer sighed as he looked behind him, "Someone please get this man some water?" a man in a suit nodded and walked away from the scene. The officer looked to the guard again as he spoke in a soft yet stern voice, "It's okay son. Everything will be okay."

"Emily never did anything to deserve this!" the guard uttered. He whimpered, "I _swear_ I didn't mean to fall asleep! I swear!" The officer sighed as he put a hand on the man's shoulder, "We know you didn't, son." The guard looked up. He had tears soaking his face. It was a face of terror; a look that knew he was guilty of allowing a fellow guard to die. He didn't believe it, "Someone _died_ because of me! It's my fault!"

"No, it isn't," the officer pointed to his partner. His partner produced an evidence bag with an amber bottle of chloroform inside of it. There was a tag on it indicating there was another piece of evidence that went with it, "We found this on Ms. Daniels' person. There was a rag in her pocket, as well. We're going to analyze the rag to see if had been used in correlation to the chloroform. My gut tells me both of them were used on _you_ last night."

"W-what?" the guard was conflicted, "N-no. Emily…"

"I know this is a shock to you, son, but in order to clear you of any negligence, we do have to ask you to submit to a blood test. Please, follow these gentlemen outside." The one man came back with a cup of water and handed it to the guard. As the guard was being ushered out, the officer instructed him to drink the water to help settle his nerves. Carlos Rivera, "Carl" as he liked to be addressed, watched as the guard was escorted outside to a squad car. Carl turned to the destruction before him and shook his head in disgust, "What the hell compels scumbags to trash a Library? This place has fallen on insane times, Manny."

Carl's partner, Manny Chang - an Asain American - looked over the library reading room and whistled, "I donno, Carl, this reminds me what the Ghostbusters did to this place little over 10 years ago. Remember that Thanksgiving?"

"How many times have I told you…" Carl was beginning to turn red.

"Yeah, yeah, don't mention the name, 'Ghostbusters'. Still…" he knelt down and looked at the yellow-colored slime on the floor, "Kinda hard to deny this as a, 'Not Normal,' thing."

"The only thing I see as, 'not normal,' is the poor new hire was supposed to be a patsy and things didn't go as planned. Her getting killed was not part of the operation."

"Operation?" Manny asked as he stood. "Yeah. Someone wanted something, and someone went ape. Why else would the bottle be left on the one guard's person? Wouldn't she ditch it the first second, on command, after the first phase was done?" "But," Manny looked to his partner, "what is there to steal _here_? A bunch of old dusty books that're stamped? I don't get it."

"Maybe," Carl put his hand to his chin, "we're not _supposed_ to get it. Maybe we're dealing with more than one culprit here."

Manny sighed, "You're starting to sound like a character from, 'Watchmen.'"

Carl and Manny were on their way to their squad car out front of the library when Manny's phone went off. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked at the name; it read, "Eduardo". "Hang on," he said to his partner, "I gotta take this." He pressed, "send," the call answering, "Hello?" Carl looked at his partner as he responded to the phone.

"_Manny," _Eduardo's voice rang over the phone's speaker, "_if Carlos is there, as far as he knows, it's _not _me. Got it?"_ "Yeah, Riana, I'm free for the moment," Manny replied in short succession. It's obvious this conversation has been done before. Carl turned his attention back to the squad and walked away. Manny waited until the man was out of earshot, "Okay, what's up?"

"_We've got something goin' on here, man. We kinda need your help."_

"Before you go any further," Manny interrupted him, "something happened you might wanna know first…"

Ecto-1 pulled in front of the library. The doors opened as Roland and Kylie emerged, Garrett rolling from the back shortly after. Roland - ever ready with a PKE meter in his hand - scanned the area, "Strong class 5. Residual. May not need packs, but grab 'em just in case."

Loaded up with equipment and inside, the dayshift team of Ghostbusters saw a flurry of activity around the Rose Reading room - the man room of the Library. Finding amongst the chaos was a grouping of people in suits. Kylie approached them and proceeded, "Excuse me, we're trying to find the president of the library, Alex Soutter?"

A much older man with white hair and glasses broke from the group and approached the team, "I'm Alex Soutter. What is the meaning of this?" Garrett approached Kylie's side to start greasing, "Good mornin', sir, we're the Ghostbusters. We had a tip that you got yourselves a little bit on an ecto problem."

"I'm afraid it's a little more serious than that," Just as the older man said that a gurnie rolled out of the main reading room and upon it was a body bag. The three Ghostbusters watched as the gurnie disappeared out the main door. Roland looked back to the president of the library system, "Good God. What happened? We weren't told about _that_."

"There was a robbery last night. We are still looking through everything to determine what was stolen, if anything, but so far the police haven't turned up anything. One of our personnel…" He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes with the same hand. "It's okay, sir," Kylie said in an assuring tone, "We'll make an attempt to find out what happened."

"Definitely a class 5," Roland was knelt down scanning the ectoplasm on the floor as Garrett took a sample of said goo. Kylie kept checking the room over. Garrett closed the lid to the sample jar, some of it getting on his hand. He attempted to fling the slime off, but to no avail. He instead wiped the slime on his lower pant leg, "Yuck. This just never stops being gross."

"From these readings, it's looking like we're dealing with a guardian spirit," Kylie stated as she approached the rest of the team, "It's obvious whatever was in here was tied to an object causing it to manifest."

Garrett placed the sample jar into his front pocket as he turned his attention to her, "That's good and all, but didn't the OGB's take care of all the paranormal goobers in here years ago?"

"New books come in all the time," Kylie placed her meter back onto her belt, "It's possible it's another spell book that just got in from God-knows-where. We might have to ask the Director of collections what's come in recently."

Ghostbusters HQ

10:15 AM

Dan was sitting in the lounge area out of uniform. He was watching the news as a report came out about the Library. Eduardo joined him on the couch, bag of potato chips in hand. He watched as images pertaining to the library came onto the screen. Pictures then showed the Original Ghostbusters standing in front of the library, the images taken many years ago. Eduardo took notice of another man with the Ghostbusters in the older images, "Hey, who's the dude with the old team? That's not you, is it?"

"No," Dan reached over and grabbed some chips from Eduardo's bag, "That was some other guy they hired long before me. From what Egon told me, I'm not the only equipment guinea pig this outfit had in the day." Dan began eating his handful of chips as Eduardo joined him, talking with his mouth full, "Man, that has got to be rough. What happened to that dude?"

"Venkman tried a franchise deal and tried to open an office in Chicago. That guy supposedly ran it for about 6 months, then closed up. Most of the hauntings were in New York at the time, so the franchise idea couldn't survive on it's own."

"Chicago?" Eduardo said with surprise in his voice, "You mean, your town?"

"Yeah. It gave me some inspiration to wanna be a Ghostbuster. Place didn't last long enough for me to graduate college. Still, I somehow found my way here."

"You know," Eduardo swallowed his food and proceeded to talk clearly, "there's still a lot I don't know about you. You've been here all this time and you know everything about us."

"What ya mean?" Just as Dan asked that, the elevator opened allowing Garrett to roll onto the floor. He saw the two of them talking on the couch, but their backs were turned to him. They didn't know he was there. Garrett approached slowly as he listened to their conversation, "Well, take Lita for example. I never even _knew _you had a girlfriend. You never mentioned it to me."

"I never mentioned it to anyone. I have my reasons, Eddie. Let's just say, up to a point, I was kinda embarrassed about certain… aspects… of our relationship."

"But, not anymore?"

"I'd rather not go into it. I'm private for a reason." They heard a creak behind them. They turned their attention behind them to see Garrett behind them. Garrett acted quickly to act like the just came up and hadn't heard a thing, "Morning, fellas! Strain ourselves asking people questions last night?" Dan rolled his eyes at the man as Eduardo asked, Garrett rolling around to face the two of them, "Hey, what was going on there? What did Manny see?"

"We found a bunch of goop, but that's about it. I was on my way to Egon's lab so he can take a look and figure out what it was that trashed the place. You failed to tell us there was a dead body there. Thanks for making us look like complete ambulance chasers."

"Technically," Dan held up an index finger, "we're hearse chasers." Kylie and Roland finally made their way upstairs and into the lounge area. Kylie looked especially annoyed at Eduardo, "What's the matter with you, the idea of a 'Dead body,' a detail not worth mentioning?"

"What are you guys talking about?" Eduardo was genuinely confused at the anger thrown his way. "We get there, and the coroner was hauling a body from the scene," Roland crossed his arms across his chest, "You just about made us look like heartless profitters."

"But, Manny didn't mention it to me!" Eduardo stood up and began defending himself, "I would have told you." Dan stood, "I can vouch. Eddie had the guy on speaker phone when he called him. He never mentioned it." Everyone looked to the two of them. They couldn't be lying, considering. Dan looked and saw the sea of faces before him not understanding, "Look, the guy likely had a brain fart. It's been known to happen. The mistake was clearly not Eddie's."

The three dayshift looked to the other two Ghostbusters before them, then to each other. Roland looked to them, "Okay, you guys have the benefit of the doubt, but next time, Eduardo, make sure this guy gives us a better heads up."

"Yeah," Eduardo's face became more solemn as he agreed, "no problem, man." With that the three dayshift left the room and walked into Egon's lab. Eduardo sat down as he threw the chip bag onto the coffee table. Dan sat beside him, "You owe me for that." Eduardo looked to the man beside him, "I didn't ask for you to do that, man." "I know," Dan agreed, "but that's not a thing you just miss. I saw your body language start screaming, 'It's not true.' It's only fair you be heard, even if I have to stick my neck out for ya," he patted the latino on the back, then grabbed the chip bag throwing it back onto his lap, "Come on, before Slimer…" "_POTATO CHIPS!"_

Dan saw a green streak fly out of the ceiling and towards Eduardo. Dan dove over the side of the couch and hit the floor. After a nice, healthy SPLAT! Dan peered over the arm of the couch. Eduardo had been slimed and Slimer now had the bag of potato chips in his hands. Eduardo looked over to his partner and leader, scowling hard as he did, "Why couldn't you have stuck out your neck for _that_?!"

All Dan did was shrug.

Staten Island

11:20 AM

Madame Holly was once again holed up in her office. She had tore her office apart digging through boxes looking for something very specific, but was coming up empty. On her desk was a beaten and worn book with a destroyed binding on the spine. She looked to be slightly manic looking through the boxes and drawers, "Goddamnit, where is it?"

She was shaken. Something had happened that morning that was now starting to bother her worse than anything had before. She backed up from her filing cabinet with her hands over her mouth and nose. She was starting to breathe in a panic; she attempted to calm herself down a moment. When that moment passed, she turned to face the door to find Matthew standing there. She jumped, "Jesus Christ, Matthew! You scared the hell out of me!"

"I'm sorry, Madame Holly," he once again spoke in his even tone, "after what happened this morning with Sister Daniels, I took the liberty of taking the…" he looked around the office and saw the destruction, "Diary of… Eiffel. It seems you were doing the same."

"What?" she yelled, rounding around her desk to confront him, "You took Eiffel's Diary _without my consent_?" She wound up and slapped the man across the face, the man's hair finally being knocked from it's slicked back position, "Do you have _any_ idea how long I was looking for that goddamn book?"

Matthew looked back forward and looked to his priestess with a scowl. He snapped and grabbed her by her cheeks, "Let us understand something, you fucking harlett: I may be at your beck and call, but my patence can only be worn so far. I am trying to cover _your_ ass. Now sit down and let me explain while you drink yourself into another blackout!" He shoved her toward the ground.

As she stood up and scrambled to her desk where she sat atop, Matthew produced a small, what appeared to be photocopied booklet. On the pages were scans of yellowed pages of an old diary, "I have managed to find a means of taking care of our little problem. I assume you were trying to use this information yourself, but I had already found our solution. Using Eiffel's notes, I am currently having built a molecular bonder. It will use modern parts and will be used in conjunction with selenium-core girders. Not even Effiel could have foreseen Shandor's influence with his old inventions."

"We have to be sure this will work, Matthew," Holly reached for her bottle of whiskey. Pulling the cork, she took a straight swig from the bottle. A sour look appeared on her face for a moment before she put the bottle back down, "Considering what happened…" she stopped and shook her head. She looked distraught, "It's too high a profile."

"If we activate this device, it will keep the Ghostbusters away from the area as well," He put the photocopied book down and took out a comb. He proceeded to straighten his hair out, "The added effect would be dissipation of paranormal energies by way of absorption."

"We have to be careful," the woman stated as she took another swig of alcohol, the burn telegraphing on her face before she continued, "We can't do it too close to where the circle would be established; the Gods would be weakened by such a device."

"I have anticipated that," hair now in order, he placed his comb back into his pocket, "We're installing the device into the milling facility on the storage scaffold. Is there something wrong?" Matthew looked intently at the woman before her and saw she was now straight up nursing the whiskey bottle; there was a look of extreme worry, "I donno, Matthew, maybe we're going about this the wrong way?"

"Don't worry, my Gydje," he approached and slowly pulled the bottle from her hand, "We have everything under control. You just pray for our fallen sister."


	24. Cold Trail

Chapter 24: Cold Trail

Ghostbusters HQ

1:30 PM

Egon had been running a spectral cross-reference on the slime sample to determine its origin. The machine was taking a rather long time as it was fairly old. In the lounge area, Kylie was looking over the manifest of books recently obtained by the library to see if anything had stuck out to her. It was a rather long list.

On the other side of the lounge, Eduardo was on the phone, "Why the hell didn't you mention it to me, Manny?" "_Sorry, Eddie, I couldn't risk exposing more than I did. Word travels fast around here; especially with the media being what it is."_ Eduardo grabbed the bridge of his nose and tried to suppress his rage, "Okay, fine, but next time, drop a hint! Now, did you find anything on your end?"

"_What little I can find. We had one lead, but it turned out to be a dead end. What is it we're looking for, exactly?"_

"Hey, you got your gag orders, I got mine." At that moment Lita walked into the lounge and found Kylie looking over the list of books, she approached and pulled up a chair, "Hey, Kylie. What ya got there?"

"We had to take a call at the library this morning," the goth flipped a couple of pages and kept looking down the list. Some titles had highlighter marks on them, "Someone stole a book from special collections. I'm trying to see what book would have been likely taken."

"They don't know yet?"

"They got somewhere around 74,278 books to check and make sure they're still there. I'm checking the most recent to see if someone was expecting it." Lita's eyes widened at the number, "Why would someone steal a book? Seems kinda… dumb." Kylie turned in her seat, irritated, "Dumb? You do know special collections has some of the most rare and _dangerous_ tomes in all the paranormal world, right?"

Lita blinked. It was clear the woman still wasn't up to speed on how dangerous the job was, "N-no, I didn't."

"These things don't just appear in a vacuum; they have an origin and they have a means to conjor them!"

Eduardo, now off the phone, approached Lita and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Don't mind her, Lita; she gets her in panties in a wad whenever someone insults her books." Kylie reached up and grabbed him by his goatee, yanking him down to where he was face-to-face with her, "How would you like to wake up one night with one of my books open attempting to suck you into the netherrealm?"

"Kylie," Egon had stepped out of his lab to the spectacle before him. She looked over and found him standing there with his arms crossed. She promptly let him go, "You got lucky this time." "I just received a fax from Amy's machine. We need to gather our materials and send one back."

"Oh, crap, I forgot about that!" Kylie slammed the papers on the desk and quickly stood up to head to Egon's lab. Eduardo rubbed his chin, "That woman is friggin _nuts._ Almost ripped my hair off, man."

"I donno," Lita said, bemused, "I seem to see a small glint in her eye as she berates you."

Eduardo rolled his eyes, "Yeah, love at first assault." He turned to walk back to the couch when Lita stood, "Hey, Eduardo? Have you seen Dan anywhere?" Eduardo plopped onto the couch grabbing the remote as he did, "Yeah, him and Roland went into the basement for something."

"Are you sure this is the smallest magnetron you could find?" Dan looked from his work on a table in the basement of the firehouse, peering through his safety glasses at Roland. He looked back down as he answered Roland's question, "Yeah, it's as small as I can find," smoke lumed away from the device he was working on as he soldered the last connections into place, "People will actually look at you strange when you tell them you need a _smaller_ magnetron. Managed to find this one on an old transmitter dish."

Lita opened the basement door and began walking down to the large open space of the containment area. As she walked down, she couldn't help but peer at the large red device that sat on the far side of the room, humming ominously like a near-silent menace. The Containment Unit instilled a sense of fear the likes no one has ever known. It kept mankind safe and in danger at the same time just by existing.

She felt a hand on her shoulder. She jumped, grabbed the hand, and quickly flipped whoever grabbed her over on his back. It was Roland. "Oooooo..." Roland groaned as he looked up, Lita kneeling down beside him, "Oh, God, Roland, I'm so sorry!"

Roland groaned out, "Dan kept warning me not to do that," She helped him up as Dan stood from the workbench, "Maybe now you'll listen." Lita helped him into a chair, soon after looking over what was on the bench, "What are you guys doing down here?"

"Me and Roland have been working on this on and off for… what, about a year now?" Dan closed up an access panel on the side of the device and hefted it up, "We call this a Psychonetic Pulse-Rail." The device looked like a shotgun with two proton canisters attached where the butt of a normal gun would be. On the front pump-handle were three coils over the barrel and on the body was a drum-like storage tank hanging below just in front of the trigger.

"Using gallium metal, we plasmatize the metal using a microwave generator and the hydrogen from the proton canisters, then expel the projectile from the barrel using gauss coils. It has the benefit of a concentrated proton beam burst with the kinetic thump of a shotgun slug. If another Draugr goes walking around here, we'll be ready for it." Dan sat back down and began activating the device, "I can't wait to test this thing."

"Are you sure we should start playing with it?" Roland asked with caution, finally shaking off the cobwebs, "I mean, we _just_ got done with it not even 5 minuets ago."

Dan cocked the pump handle, the device giving off a menacing whirl, "Come on, Roland, we might have to make a few adjustments, but…" Dan pulled the trigger and a large flash emanated from the barrel along with an ear-piercing ping sound. Lita and Roland jumped as the force of the blast knocked Dan backwards in his chair, his safety glasses flying from his face in the process. An energy wake tore through the air as the gallium slug hit a cinderblock in the wall causing it to explode outward. Lita and Roland looked at each other then ran over to him, Roland leaving his own chair.

Lita and Roland hung over Dan as they looked him over, "Dan!" Roland called out, "Dan, you alright?"

"Yeah," Dan coughed regaining his breath, "adjustments are at the _top_ of the list."

Lita looked him over, "Do you need help up?" "No, no, that's okay," he responded, "I think I'll just lay here for a minute; reflect on my life." His eyes squinted as he looked to the ceiling of the basement, "Slimer's gone through that ceiling a lot over the years; the _stains_ on it!"

Roland and Lita looked at each other again, then rolled their eyes as they said the same thing in unison, "He's fine." They shook their heads and started walking to the stairwell door, leaving Dan alone on the floor. After they walked upstairs, Dan still laid there looking at the ceiling, "...I am _not _cleaning that ceiling."

3:00 PM

The night team began their shift an hour early. Coming back up from their lockers dressed in their uniforms, they walked into Egon's lab. "Hey Egon," Dan call out, "how's the term paper doing?"

"We're getting along slowly," the physicist was typing out his document reading from other printouts Janine had relayed to him, "It appears a very small amount of artifacts were transferred from the region any time recently. Most other artifacts either went directly from customs to its point of destination outside of New York, or never even came to New York at all. We may have to assume whatever has been brought to New York has been here for some time."

"Then what do we tell Raye?" Lita asked.

"I'm giving her instructions on what the recorder looked like from the best of my recollection. It had been many years since I have seen it, and I only saw it briefly. With any hope, the image she conquers up may be enough."

Dan didn't like that, "That's a big hope, Egon."

"I know, Dan," Egon stopped and sighed. He looked to him, "but all we can do is wait until something happens again."

"I guess we'll have to use Roland's algorithm to find what we need," Dan took out the modified meter he received the night before, "This is gonna be like finding a needle in a…" Dan turned on the PKE meter and it started going insane. Dan left the meter in Recall mode which had Roland's program running already, "Whoa! What the hell?"

"Hey, man," Eduardo looked over his shoulder, "why's the meter going crazy?"

"Roland's program! It got something and it's nearby!"

Egon stood from his chair and looked at the display, "What? Impossible! According to this, it's right here in this room!"

"How can that be?" Lita covered her ears over the loud screeching the device was emitting, "Roland had that meter on last night. What changed?" That was when it dawned on Egon, "I know _exactly _what changed!" He snatched the meter from Dan's grip and started pointing it at his spectral analyzer. The sample jar Garrett handed him that morning was still sitting there. Pointing the meter at it, the signal peaked, "This robbery and the earthquake yesterday are connected. I think we need to find the book that was stolen…" he turned to his night crew, a look of dread on his face, "…And we better do it soon."


	25. Inside The Fire

Chapter 25: Inside the Fire

Tuesday, June 25th, 2002

Cherry Hill Temple

Tokyo, Japan

8:45 AM

Raye had finished her chores as she always did - and some of Chad's, considering his clumsy nature - and proceeded to start stocking her fireplace with wood. She was just stoking the fire as Amy, Mina, and the cat guardians finally arrived. They walked into Raye's room, Amy holding a stack of papers. It was the size of a small Stephen King novel. Raye looked at the stack in the blue-haired woman's hand as she dropped her fire iron, "What is all that?"

"That's everything Egon sent Amy," Artemis answered, "Him and his student Kylie faxed whole parts of texts, pictures, and descriptions."

"Don't worry, Raye," Amy knelt down to the table in the room, "I had already gone through the pages and highlighted the information you need to focus on." She placed the stack of paper on the table. There were several bookmarks made of post-it notes marking pages, "It came with a note, 'I know there's a lot of information here, but if you feel you need more, just call us and we'll get you what you need. Signed, Kylie Griffin.'"

"Sounds like this Kylie girl is on her game," Luna stated as she jumped onto the table followed by Artemis, "I only wish Serena was this through." Raye started dragging the papers toward her and knelt down to start thumbing through them as Amy responded, "She's rather organized, as well. I feel like we'd get along great!"

Raye had an impressed expression on her face as she looked at the scanned pages of rare occult literature at her fingers, "Yeah, me too. She has information I didn't even know was out there!"

Mina finally knelt down to the table as she shook her head, "Come on, you guys, we have a long day ahead of us. Last thing Kylie, Eduardo, and the rest of them want is for us to take forever over your appreciation for… What?" Everyone was looking to Mina as though she said something strange. Raye looked to her, "Who's Eduardo?"

"One of the new Ghostbusters," Mina was confused as much as her fellow Sailor Scouts, "Didn't you tell me that?" Raye shook her head. Mina looked to Amy, "It wasn't you, was it?" "I'm sorry, but no." As soon as she looked to the cats, Luna immediately responded, "We don't know any of the new team outside of Kylie. Are you sure you didn't see it in a newspaper?"

"I might have. I…" she grabbed the side of her blonde-haired head and scratched it, "I have no idea why I said that." "Look," Raye broke in, "let's just start going through this stuff and figure out what Egon needs; we'll figure out their roster later." From there, Amy pulled a set of notebooks from her bag as Raye split the stack of papers into three separate stacks for each Scout to look over.

3:45 PM

For nearly 7 hours, the three women separated out various texts supplied by the Ghostbusters as a means of focus for Raye. There was something of a pattern shown in Kylie and Egon's notes that pointed to certain texts. A lot of the information was vague, but a lot of the information pointed towards certain objects - books, scrolls, talismans, ect. The pictures provided gave ornate detail descriptions to crafted items of certain time periods within Norse mythology. Even the description of the very object Egon was looking for as the center of the search proved useful. Mina took the description of the recorder and managed to craft a crude drawing of the recorder on notebook paper.

Several drinks, crumpled pieces of paper, and various notes laid spralled across the table. Mina had her elbows on the table, her hands on her temples massaging her head. Both cat guardians were asleep. Raye was taking a pain reliever tablet before drinking water from a bottle. Amy was still looking through the paperwork, her taking scans of some of the pages with her mini-computer. She was making strides to perform translations and using her old programming of the Ghostbusters' PKE detection array to make sure she didn't accidentally conjure anything nasty in Raye's temple. It was overwhelming to her, to say the least, "How do they do it? It's so… Archaic!"

Mina looked up to their team genius rather surprised, "That's the first time I've ever heard you complain about reading books." "I'm not used to reading up demonology. I hope paranormal physiology doesn't interrupt my ability to understand human physiology."

"Okay," Raye knelt down to her position at the table, "we've been at this all day. Sunset will be in another few hours or so. I think it would be best is we stopped for dinner. I'm going to need to go over what we have before it gets to twilight."

"Agreed," Amy and Mina said in unison. Amy stretched a bit as she stated, "Mina and I will head to that sandwich shop down the street bring you back something." The two girls stood and began walking out as Raye began gathering whatever the three of them turned up that looked significant. She looked to the recorder picture and kept her focus on it. There was something to the design that looked… familiar. Something about it…

Luna jumped onto the table before her. It startled the girl, "Oh, Geez…!" "Sorry about that, we seemed to have dozed off."

"That's okay, Luna. Our brains were starting to melt from the information, so I called a break. Amy and Mina just left."

"Did you find enough on what you're looking for?"

"Everything except for one thing," Raye had put down the drawing and picked up her notebook. She flipped back a couple of pages as she proceeded to point to a note she made with multiple questions marks around it, "Kylie had specifically asked me to find a book as well. Not exactly sure what it has to do with what we're looking for, but she says it was just stolen from a restricted part of the main library in New York. She noted it was going to take the Library and the police a while to find it."

"I'm worried, Raye," the black cat responded as she looked at the notes and the drawing of the recorder, "If this is serious like Egon said it was, and if what you told me is true about Lita becoming a Ghostbuster, she may very well be in danger."

"I know, Luna, I know!" Raye stood up and began putting more wood on the still burning fire. She let the flame burn for several hours knowing the fire itself needed to absorb some of the information they were collecting. She began stoking it again as she spoke, "I know Dan will watch over her. I'm not sure about the others. That Garrett character especially." Luna raised her head at that, "Garrett?"

Raye stopped what she was doing. She stood up and looked to Luna with a look of confusion, "Who's Garrett? That name just came into my mind." She looked back over her notes quickly hoping that name came from somewhere in there. Luna looked her over, a suspicion started to form. The cat shook its head and talked to her, "Raye, I wouldn't mind that right now. Once Mina and Amy return, and everything is settled, we'll seek out the information for the Ghostbusters."

5:57 PM

The fire was roaring. Mina and Amy as well as the cat guardians sat behind Raye who was now sporting her temple robes. She looked behind her, "Are we ready?" The others nodded their heads. She turned back and started focusing on the fire. She began her chant, "I am flame. Flame is light. I am fire. Fire is sight." She kept muttering the words over and over as she began placing herself into a trance.

Considering all of the information they were searching for, Amy had decided to use her Mini-Computer to record PKE readings in hopes Egon could use them. Very quietly, Mina spoke, "How sensitive is all this information? The Negaverse's moves were always so hard to predict."

"I'm not sure," Amy responded just as quietly. She kept checking her computer, "So far I'm not…" A small valley appeared on her graph. Another one spiked just a moment later. Raye continued her chant as Amy's PKE valances kept showing bigger and bigger spikes, but were still broken up by dead spaces. Luna jumped up onto Amy's shoulder to get a look at the readings, "What is that?" "I don't know. I haven't run the PKE function since we met the Ghostbusters, and I've never ran it during a fire reading. I don't know if this is normal."

The PKE valance just spiked a huge spike.

The flames of the fire flared up.

Raye suddenly grabbed her throat.

Mina yelled out "This is not normal!" Raye fell backwards onto the floor and started rolling around. Amy and Mina jumped from their positions as Amy looked again to her computer. The valances were beyond anything shes ever seen. That was when she switched energy detection modes and looked at the reading again, "That can't be!" The wind in the room became turbulent as the papers Egon and Kylie sent to them started whirling around the room. Raye was grabbing her head as she started screaming.

Just outside, Chad was finishing pouring more water into the Koi pond when he felt the ground shake below him, "Whoa, what was that?" That was when he heard Raye screaming. Still holding the half-full pail he started running inside. Approaching the room, he could tell it was definitely her.

"We have to break the connection!" Amy was yelling over the rustling wind. Mina responded in kind, "How do we do that?"

"We have to put out that fire!" she pointed to the fireplace, then showed the readings to Mina, "The psychic turbulence is overloading her mind! It's all coming from the fire!" That was when the door slid open and Chad entered the room, "What's going on?! Raye, are you alright?" Mina spotted the bucket in Chad's hand. She rushed to him, snatched the bucket from him, then proceeded to throw what was left of the water onto the fire. The water hissed as steam and smoke wafted into the chimney.

Throwing the bucket to the side, Mina ran up to Raye and knelt down to check on her. Chad did the same, "What happened?" He looked around the room. Before Chad realized it, Amy realized she still had her mini-computer out and running. She hid it behind her back. "Wow! Did a cyclone come through here or something?"

Raye opened her eyes…

They were blood red.

She reached up and grabbed Chad by his throat. She threw him behind her, him landing on the table. Raye stood and looked at the other two girls in the room. She growled an almost inhuman growl. Before too long, she began to levitate off the ground. "Amy?" Mina had a tremor in her voice, "What happened to her?"

"She must of absorbed too much energy!" She took out the computer again and started scanning, "Something came from inside the fire and is in possession of her!"

"Was I like this when we were in the tower?"

"Unfortunately."

Mina was starting to panic, "Then what do we do?" Chad rolled off the table and looked up to the possessed woman before him. From inside his robes, he produced scrolls. He suddenly started sweating bullets as he looked to Raye, "Dear God, what am I doing?" Raye lunged at him as he placed a scroll into his palm. He threw his hand out and attached the scroll to her face.

Immediately she fell to her knees. She had her hands up in front of her, shaking. Amy looked back to her computer, knowing that despite Chad being in the room, she had to know what was happening to Raye. She switched back to PKE mode and tried to see what the scroll was doing. Raye opened her eyes and her eyes were normal, but she looked to be in pain, "Amy, it's not enough! Help!"

"The scroll is only suppressing the energy!" Amy typed like mad on the small device as she looked at the results of the scan, "We have to drive it out!" Amy ran back to the table and started digging into her bag and started dumping the contents in her way on the floor. Mina looked at what she was doing, terrified of what was going on, "What are you doing?!"

"Dr. Stantz gave me something shortly after they went back to New York!" She produced a small glass vial of a pink viscous material, "I've carried it around since in case of an emergency!" Amy ran up to Chad and demanded a scroll. Obtaining one she opened the vial and coated the piece of paper with script in the contents. She slapped the scroll over the first one. Raye started to convulse, then she went limp. She collapsed into Chad's arms. A red vapor started leaving her body. It flew up the chimney and vanished out of the temple.

Chad picked her up and immediately brought her to her bed and laid her in it. He backed up as Amy and Mina tended to her, "Is she okay? Please tell me she's okay!"Amy was running another scan, "She's going to be okay. She's going to need to rest." Mina stood up from the opposite side of the bed and began to escort Chad out, "Chad, you're going to need to go and get us medical supplies. Can you do that?" He nodded his head. As soon as he finished, he started running out of the temple.

Tuesday, June 25th 2002

Ghostbusters HQ

New York City, NY USA

4:35 AM

Light snoring was heard. The firehouse was dark and empty sans 3 people and a ghost. Egon was face down on his workbench fast asleep, Dan and Lita in their bunks, also asleep. Slimer slept on the couch in the lounge area. The Containment Unit was green and operational. Ecto-1 sat in the garage bay silent and off. Janine's computer screensaver played a small animation of the Ghostbusters logo bouncing off the sides of the screen. The building was silent with very light snoring.

The loud ringing of the phone jarred Dan awake. What was a silent sleep was rudely interrupted. Dan snapped his eyes awake as he reached for the phone receiver, "Ghostbusters." He turned on his nightstand light as he heard the woman calling starting to talk really fast, "We have to talk to Dr. Spengler! We need help right now!" Dan swung his legs out from the bed and started shaking what's left of sleep from him as he attempted to slow down the person calling, "Woah, woah there, John Moschitta, start from the beginning."

"Dan, is that you?" The voice sounded familiar to him, "Amy? Yeah, it's Dan, what's up?" "We're at Raye's temple; Mina and myself. We were helping her out with the fire reading and something happened! Something went wrong! Is Dr. Spengler available?" "You're gonna have to give me a minute; it's almost a quarter to five in the morning here in New York."

"Please, Dan; it's very urgent! Raye ended up possessed by her fire reading!"

Dan's eyes shot open wide, "WHAT?! Is she okay?!" He was awake now. Dan's yelling woke Lita up. She turned over to see him on the phone. Amy was very unsettled and he heard it in her voice, "Yes, she's resting. Dan, that's not the worst of it."

Lita kicked her sheets off and looked at Dan as Amy told him the worst part. All the color drained from his face. He started to breathe unevenly, "Holy Shit! Amy," he started acting frantic as he stood up, "stay on the line! I'm gonna put you on hold and transfer you to Egon's Lab! Hang on!" He clicked the hold button on the phone and started scrambling out of the room. Lita quickly swung her legs out from the bed and called out to him, "Dan, what's wrong? What did Amy say?"

Dan stopped and turned to her, "The recorder we're looking for? The one Jeremy Whittington used?" Lita nodded, "Yeah?"

"It's of Negaverse origin."

To be continued in Lunar Impact: Phases


End file.
